Hero Defined
by TD Master
Summary: Part of the Buffy Z multiverse. Gohan accidentally rides an interdimensional prototype ship and ends up in Sailor Moon’s dimension, where his arrival causes great upheaval.
1. Chapter 1: Accidents Happen

Summary: Part of the Buffy Z multiverse. Gohan accidentally rides an interdimensional prototype ship and ends up in Sailor Moon's dimension, where his arrival causes great upheaval.

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z, its characters and the concept of the Saiyan race belong to Akira Toriyama. Sailor Moon and its concepts and characters belong to Takeuchi Naoko. 

Hero Defined

by 3D Master (3d.master@chello.nl)  
website: 

Author's Notes: This story is part of the Buffy Z multiverse, in it there is a Super Human and Gohan has already reached Super Saiyan 3, and Vegeta is crowned king. So don't go complaining that Gohan never reaches Super Saiyan 3 and Vegeta is only a prince and all that. Better yet, although it is not necessary to understand and enjoy this story, if you haven't already, go read the first 6 episodes of Buffy Z, and the reimaginings of Dragonball Z movies 7, 8, and 9, as well as Buffy Z episodes 16 and 17, in which Vegeta is crowned king, at my website.   
  
The placing in the Sailor Moon time line is Season 2, or Sailor Moon R, at the very beginning. It starts just after Usagi's memory has been restored, and while Gohan is acclimating to his new surroundings, the other Sailor Soldiers will get their memories restored.   
  
  
Gohan's theme: Laura Branigan - I Need a Hero: Where I use this one is the best, however from Laura I can only find an incomplete, and a bad quality version. If you say that doesn't work for you, use the one from Bonnie Tyler.   
  
Anaconda - I Need a Hero (Jan Wayne Remix): Later on a more action packed sound, without sacrificing the emotional impact is needed.   
  
  
Gohan SSJ Battle Theme: Dragonball Z - Bruce Faulconer - Gohan SSJ2 transformation theme: lovely action sound.   
  
  
Gohan SSJ2 Theme: Kageyama Hironobu - The Day of Destiny - Spirit vs. Spirit   
  
  
Gohan SSJ3 Battle Theme: Marilyn Manson - Seizure of Power

Meanwhile in the Dragonball dimension . . .

_Chapter 1: Accidents Happen_

"Mom? MOM!?" Gohan called out excitedly.

"Yes, Gohan?" Chichi called in response. She came down the stairs and saw Gohan standing in the living room.

"Bulma just called, she is going to test the interdimensional prototype with a monkey inside!" Gohan exclaimed excitedly. "She asked if I wanted to be present, can I go?"

"Uhm," Chichi started, thinking it over. "I was planning to go do the groceries, and get a haircut," she said thoughtfully, and saw Gohan's pleading puppy-dog eyes. "I could take Goten along, but that would be somewhat of a hassle. Unless, you take Goten with you, with clean diapers, and a bottle . . ."

Chichi had been teaching Gohan how to help out with the newest tike in the Son household, and so Gohan immediately jumped at the chance, "I'LL DO IT! No problem, mom!"

"Ok then, but be very careful," Chichi warned her son.

"I always am," Gohan answered, and started gathering the things he needed for his little brother.

*****

Gohan smoothly landed in front of the Capsule Corp headquarters. The compound stretched across several acres included Bulma's personal laboratories, the Briefs' living residences, the main offices, and the local production factory. Goten was giggling all the way, until Gohan landed, and Goten protested with a loud wail that he thought flying was much more fun.

"Sorry, Goten, no more flying we're here," Gohan told his little brother soothingly. Goten wailed again, then again, when he noticed it didn't help, he latched onto Gohan's soothing sounds and quieted down. "Good boy," Gohan told him with a smile. He walked inside the main building and quickly went toward the laboratories.

On the way he came by the newly furnished Gravity Gym, his own Gravity Room had gotten the same upgrades. The digital readout above the door showed that somebody was using it, and Gohan decided to take a quick look. He opened the door, and entered. Inside Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta was squaring off against Super Human Krillin. Their fight was ferocious. Energy blasts flew back and forth, punches and kicks were countered, a destructo disc was obliterated. The two were incredible. To the untrained eye it would seem as if both combatants were even, to the trained eye it was obvious Vegeta was holding back severely. After testing their skill for a minute more, Vegeta sped up, kicked Krillin' with a roundhouse kick, blinked out, and reappeared behind the shorthaired ex-monk, and smacked him to the ground with a double-handed bash.

"Ow," Krillin muttered as he got back up.

"Great fight, for a monk," Vegeta commented from the air, his arms crossed over his chest. Krillin glared at the Saiyan king, and Vegeta smirked at him. Krillin broke into a grin, and Vegeta lowered himself to the floor.

"Great fight, both of you," Gohan complimented them with a big smile.

"Says the little kid who can whip both our asses with his hands tied behind his back," Krillin commented ruefully, then breaking out in a smile he added, "I suppose that's a great compliment then. Want to join in, Gohan?"

Vegeta hmpfed, powering down to a 'mere' Super Saiyan, as Krillin returned to normal, and lowered himself to the floor as well.

"No can do. Bulma is going to test the interdimensional space ship with a living subject for the first time," Gohan told them enthusiastically. "I get to assist her. Why don't you guys come as well?"

"I'll ride the thing to Littica's wedding," Vegeta commented gruffly, "and I want the woman to teach me how to repair the thing in an emergency, but how it's tested I couldn't care less."

"Yeah," Krillin chimed in. "I'm not that much of a whiz with science anyway."

"Ok, then, I've got to get going, have fun training," Gohan told the two and quickly left the gym. Vegeta growled in irritation.

*****

A few minutes later Gohan arrived in Bulma's laboratory. "Hello, Bulma," Gohan greeted excitedly.

"Gohan!" Bulma shouted out enthusiastically. "You're just in time. I'm about to start the countdown sequence!"

"Great!" Gohan called with a wide grin, and looked around. He found a chair, smiled and walked over to it. He carefully placed Goten on it, and told the baby, "Now you just stay put, okay?"

Gohan quickly walked back to Bulma and the control board. A reinforced window looked out into a room to a small space pod: the interdimensional prototype. Gohan grinned, and smoothly placed himself at the board. He remembered with fondness helping out Bulma during the building phase of it, and the previous smaller versions built without life support capabilities. He had gotten intimately familiar with the machine and the control board, so he had no problem keeping an eye on the readings.

"T minus two minutes to launch," Bulma announced with a grin, a digital clock counting down. "If this works Gohan, if the chimp survives, we can start sending everyone back to their home. I'll bet they'll be relieved, all thanks to my superior intellect."

Gohan grinned, he already knew what was at stake, he had heard it all before. When they hit one minute forty-five seconds Gohan said, "And a little help from Littica."

"I would have figured it out without his help as well, Gohan," Bulma replied with just a little scorn. Too wrapped up in the big event, neither of them noticed that behind them Goten climbed off the chair and started crawling to the exit of the control room.

Goten happily crawled along, going past the exit and looking around. To the right, in the corridor was a door, but that wasn't something that Goten really understood. What he did understand that was that through the windows in the door and on either side of it he could see lights: lights of the interdimensional ship starting its launch sequence - the kaleidoscope of colors that was the energy field circling around it, ready to tear a hole in the fabric of space and time and sending the ship hurtling toward a completely different universe. What Goten also understood, was that those lights were pretty.

Goten crawled over to the door and looked up, annoyed at the thing barring his way to the pretty lights. He saw the handle that would open the door, and decided to see if he could get up there to see the pretty lights. Even as a baby the half-Saiyan / half-Human hybrid was remarkably strong, so as he flexed his leg muscles the baby shot up into the air. Goten giggled at the flight and grabbed a hold of the safety handle. The handle was strong enough to handle most stresses, strong enough to keep little kids out of the potentially dangerous room, but it was only a handle. The average Saiyan ten-year-old wouldn't be able to make a dent in the safety door, or in the handle, neither could the average human child, but Goten was both, and the hybrids between the two species were remarkably strong, even as a baby. Goten grabbed the handle and pulled on it, to get himself up, he flexed his muscles in his little hand. He threatened to topple over, which was new for the child. He tapped into powers he had never tapped into before, and the handle shattered under the force. Goten was no longer held up by any physical object, and so he tumbled to the floor. He fell on it, was silent in shock for a moment, and then he giggled with delight. Now, the door was a safety door in more ways than one. Since this laboratory would never hold any infectious agents, or any other dangerous elements that could threaten people's lives if it ever got out of a hermetically sealed lab, it was programmed to open during crisis times, allowing anyone working inside to get out in time before catastrophe struck. The computer in the door interpreted the destruction of its handle as sufficient reason not to take the chance people could be locked inside, and it smoothly slid open.

Goten blinked at the suddenly open door, and the lights beyond. He crawled onto the metal grating behind the door swiftly, and then reached a staircase leading down the actual test area. The powerful energy field surrounding the small pod, which was just big enough to hold a chimpanzee, continued its buildup of energy, oblivious to the danger. Goten grinned, and quickly started descending down the metal grated stairs. Halfway down he lost his grip and tumbled down. Shocked at first, tumbling down the stairs and landing on the concrete floor, Goten stayed quiet. Then he started crying, but the pretty lights distracted him from his shock and minor pains. He grinned again, and started crawling along the floor.

Back up in the control room, Gohan and Bulma were mentally counting down along with the clock. "T minus twenty seconds," Bulma announced and then they looked up through the window, fixated on the pod. Fifteen seconds came and went, by the time they reached twelve seconds, Bulma noticed Goten crawling across the floor, dangerously close to the interdimensional ship.

"Oh, my god!" Bulma exclaimed in shock. Ten seconds remained. Gohan looked, at where Bulma was looking, and his eyes widened in shock. He whirled around and looked at the chair. Empty.

Gohan returned to Bulma, and yelled, "Abort!" Seven seconds left.

Bulma started pushing buttons, Gohan held his breath looking at the whirlwind of fingers with hope. Five seconds left. "Too late, I can't stop it anymore."

Three seconds left, and Gohan shot from the control room, flew past the open door, and down the letter, aiming for Goten. When he grabbed his brother by the back of his clothes, one and a half seconds were left. Gohan hadn't dared to move any faster, for fear of missing a turn, crashing through stuff and bury his brother in debris. Gohan twisted around in the air, rapidly lowering his speed. Not taking any chance with his brother, he threw Goten straight back up the stairs with the quick thought, *It won't hurt him, he's like me, hopefully he doesn't blow away half the building.*

Goten giggled happily on his flight back up the stairs, until he reached the wall. His eyes widened, and instinctively exerted his energy, enough to turn a smack into a light and even pleasant bump.

Gohan still shot backward, toward the interdimensional pod, slowing down rapidly, even using a foot onto the floor to help. The chimp inside looked through a window in wonder at Gohan. Gohan entered the energy field, and was just starting to fly into the other direction, back toward the control room, away from the pod, when it disappeared into an interdimensional fold, pulling Gohan right along with it.

Bulma watched with horrified eyes, as she saw the pod disappear in a flash, Gohan along with it. "Gohan!!" she screamed out hysterically. Briefly she looked over to Goten, but he was sitting on his ass, on the floor, looking around obliviously, seemingly happy. Regaining herself, she dipped her head down, and started accessing the pod's sensor readings. Her eyes widened, Gohan was still alive!

Gohan tumbled along the tunnel of the rawest of energies, right beside the pod smaller than him. The chimp looked with even wider eyes through the windows. Discharges licked at the demi Saiyan, sending jolts of pain through him that not even Cell, or Brolli had managed to cause him, and there was no air. Fear gripped at what was happening to him, and he transformed with a shockwave of energy into the Super Saiyan. His pupils and irises teal green, his hair golden, and golden light washed from him. The energy wave crashed against a pod, it wobbled, energy in the fold suddenly intensified, and with a flash the pod, and tunnel veered off course.

"What!? NOOO!" Bulma screamed in horror as the pod's sensor readings disappeared, and the control room's interdimensional sensors lost the pod, just after everything registered a powerful explosive energy increased. Bulma stared in disbelief at the sensors, it couldn't be, it just couldn't be. She double checked all the readings, recalibrated the sensors with misty eyes as horror started gripping her more and more. Nothing. "I KILLED GOHAN!!" Bulma wailed out in complete devastation. Tears ran down her cheeks freely. Goten's giggle and his touch on her leg got her attention. She sank down to her knees in defeat, and crying she picked up Goten, cradling him to her chest. "I killed your big brother!" Bulma cried out with sadness, soon Goten picked up on her crying and sadness and joined her.

*****

In a mountainous region overlooking a plain energy suddenly crackled. The plain down below bordered on the ocean, and most of it was covered with buildings. One particular large city dominated the view. From the crackling energy suddenly shot a round pod, it crashed against the ground, bumped up, tumbled on end, smashed against the ground again, and continued in this fashion until it smashed against a large rock and stopped. Moments later a golden glowing form shot from the fissure in space and time, tumbled on end several times as well before the form stopped himself and then fell to the floor. The golden glow disappeared around the form which turned out to be a young boy: more specifically, one Son Gohan. The golden hair turned to black, and his green in green eyes returned to a dark color.

*****

Hikawa Shinto shrine

Hino Rei in her traditional Shinto maiden outfit swept the floor. "Ah!" she suddenly exclaimed, grabbing her head and bending over in pain.

Her grandfather ran to her concerned. "Rei! Are you alright?"

"Yes, grandfather, don't worry, just a little headache, it's already gone," Rei answered her grandfather who was quickly placated.

On the wall surrounding the shrine, a gray cat observed.

*****

Elsewhere

The cat jumped into the open window, and looked at the blue-haired girl furiously typing away at her computer. On the ground beneath the girl's desk, there was a little blinking light. The cat - named Artemis - snuck down to the ground without the girl noticing. The cat then disappeared under the desk and found the source of the blinking: a small sensor and computer combination. Artemis blinked, realizing it was a leftover from the year before. She stalked over to it and looked at the readout, then turned it off so the girl wouldn't notice it. He quickly snuck back out. Once outside he muttered to himself, "This is not good."

*****

"Oh, damn," Gohan muttered and slowly got up, his bones and muscles realigning properly with a few knacks. "Now that was one hell of a ride, and I do mean hell." Gohan looked around, first noticing the half-destroyed pod. Remembering the chimp, he quickly ran to the pod and looked through one of the cracked windows. Shocked, Gohan jerked his head back, and then slowly returned to look at it. He crunched up his face in disgust and sadness, and turned away from the sight. What was left of the chimp was splattered all over the pod's insides as if it had been cooked from the inside out; as if it had been microwaved. Gohan shook his head, and muttered, "I'm sorry. Poor monkey." He steeled himself and returned to the pod. When it didn't want to open, Gohan ripped the hatch from its fittings. He quickly put his left hand over his nose as to protect himself from the disgusting stench. "You were brave," Gohan told the remains sadly. He stretched out his right hand, and vaporized the microwaved corpse of the monkey with his energy. He removed his hand from his nose, and was glad that the smell was now gone, and he could get to the pod's insides without touching the disgusting mess that had been the monkey's remains and defile it in the process.

Gohan didn't have the heart to go into the pod right away though, feeling he should give the monkey that much respect and decided to explore a bit. He walked and looked around, and soon found the edge of where he had landed. He looked up seeing the mountainous region he landed in stretch out in all directions. Below he found the urbanized plain. "Wow," he muttered, as he looked at all the buildings, a few planes circling above what would probably be an airport. "That's a big city."

He contemplated what to do next and had an idea. He jumped up and shot in the air, higher and higher, and looked down. Quickly he saw the familiar lines of the Earth, and his homeland, but not quite. When he examined the place more closely, he realized that although everything was practically the same, there were some key differences: a rounded edge where there should be a sharp one, cities where there shouldn't be any, and vice versa. Most notably was his homeland that was part of the continent back home. Here, despite similar looking outer contours, it was an island. It seemed that the history of this Earth was a little different, including the natural forces that eroded the land: this was Earth, but it had undergone a somewhat different evolutionary history. Gohan folded his arms across his chest, his blue gi fluttering in the wind, and contemplated his predicament. A short time later, as Gohan felt a mass of life forces approach, he casually lowered himself down a good deal, and an airplane harmlessly moved above him.

*****

Inside the plane

"Mom! There's a boy floating in the air!" a little girl exclaimed excitedly.

"Not now, honey," the woman answered her daughter as she roamed through a plastic bag, looking for something.

"But mom! A boy is flying! And he doesn't have a parachute!" the girl called excited.

The mother decided to humor the girl and looked up, at the clouds, "Yes, you can see a boy in those clouds, can you?"

"No! Not the clouds, down there," the girl pointed down at the ground. Her mother leaned over, and then looked back at her daughter blankly. "Now you're too late, we passed him," the girl pouted. The mother sighed and continued rummaging in her bag.

*****

Gohan hung in the air for a few more moments, before deciding he had wasted time long enough. He quickly descended back down to the pod. He looked inside. There weren't any controls, one wouldn't want the monkey to send the ship wrong, but it did contain the interdimensional communications device. It was annoyingly also built into the ship. After some pulling he managed to tear open the housing, and then he pulled out the small screen and the wires.

"Ok, now I need a battery," Gohan told himself, looking at the communications equipment. He went around to the ships power cell. He ripped off its metal plate covering, and saw the crystal-like appearance of the hyper-dimensional energy source. He gently pried it loose, and went to work hooking the communicator up. He had had enough training during his working with Bulma during vacations to work this. Of course hooking a power source for a ship - with enough power to tear apart space and time and fold it over - to a small communications device was overkill, so he went back into the ship to find himself a converter. After some rummaging inside he found one suitable to the task. He hooked the two together, and hoped this was enough, that the internal circuitry wasn't messed up. He didn't have the tools on him to start microscopic repairs, he would have to get them down in the city, if this place even had suitable tools. No, if this didn't work, it was definitely not of the good.

Gohan took a deep breath and activated the machine. Static - good sign; it meant the thing was at least receiving something, and was probably intact. Ok, no contact with Bulma - not good. The device was set for a direct link to his home dimension, so why hadn't Bulma answered yet? Unless . . . oh, no, if he didn't land in the dimension the ship was intended to land, than the frequency and direction wouldn't be correct anymore. And this ship was never given the capability to pinpoint its position in hyper-dimensional space relative to its starting point; it was never considered to need it - that was planned for the full version. He thought this over. It was best to assume that he hadn't veered off course too much, so finding Bulma should be possible. Gohan started fiddling with the device's frequency.

*****

Vegeta twisted easily out of Krillin's way, and then smacked him down to the ground. He smirked, and said, "Why don't you give up, monk? You should know you can't beat me anymore!"

Krillin grinned as he got up. He looked up at the floating Vegeta, who had his arms imperiously folded across his chest, and told him, "And if I should give up, you wouldn't respect me anymore."

Vegeta's eyebrows shot up and asked, "What makes you think I respect you now?"

"You're training with me, aren't you?" Krillin retorted, and Vegeta couldn't help but smirk. This monk was starting to know him, not to mention he was starting to like him. Krillin grinned mischievously, and added, "As for not beating you, you're very wrong, you just hold still." Vegeta's eyebrows shot up again and looked down with interest.

Krillin concentrated, smoothed his breathing. He held his hands up beside his body and gently started moving them about. Lately he had started feeling there was just plain more to Super Human, it was as if he came across a reservoir of power that he hadn't tapped into yet. The greater his skill became, the more aware he became of some place of power he could reach. Super Human pulled the energy directly from the universe itself, from the energy surrounding him, but that's not where he was reaching now. His hands moved about, in a pattern he had been discerning for the past month or two. The super human sphere altered slightly, becoming rounder and a little more violent. Without knowing this was exactly what he did, Krillin started tapping into the energy of a slightly lower unseen dimension. An orange electrical discharge cracked inside his blue Super Human electrical sphere. Then another, and another. The orange discharged shot from his body into the blue outer shell of his Super Human transformation. Small orange electrical charges started crackling among the blue ones in his still very short hair. Slowly, bit by little bit, the orange discharges became coherent, starting circling within the blue sphere, that slowly regained its cone-like shape, both colors of energy circling faster. Suddenly Krillin's eyes shot open, orange electricity now crackling alongside the blue in his pupils. The orange energy found his body, and wrapped itself into him, his cells adapting to handle the extra load, mutating slightly throughout his body. The process was extremely painful, and Krillin screamed out in pain and fulfilment. With a crack, the mutation was complete, Krillin stopped screaming, now surrounded by two electrical cones, one blue, the other orange, both energies colliding with each other, merging in other spots, constantly interacting. It was an impressive sight.

Vegeta looked down at the newly transformed ex-monk, his mouth open slightly. The two energies crackling in Krillin's pupils and around his irises gave him a terrifying air to any normal man. Vegeta wasn't a normal man, but he _/was/_ taken aback. Suddenly Krillin shot up into the air, a mere streak to normal human eyes. He solidified into a recognizable shape behind Vegeta, and kicked the Saiyan king hard into his back, propelling him forward. Krillin shot after him, pummeled the king several times into his stomach, and then with a double handed smash sent him to the ground. Krillin sent an explosive energy ball after Vegeta doing more damage on impact. Krillin zapped down, and smashed his foot into Vegeta's chest. The Saiyan went rigid for a moment, and then went limp, transforming down to Super Saiyan level one.

"Super Human 2. What do you think?" Krillin asked smirking deeply. Vegeta blinked. "The vast difference in power between us has just almost disappeared, Vegeta."

Vegeta blinked again, and then laughed out loud. Krillin took his foot of him, smiling as Vegeta got up. "You kami-damned humans," he told Krillin, and then got up. Then he growled at said, "You better not think that it's going to be easy if you don't have the element of surprise."

Krillin laughed, and answered, "I wouldn't dare."

"Let's take a break," Vegeta told Krillin and his hair returned to normal. Krillin did the same and the two warriors fell in step, walking to the exit of the Gravity Gym. 

Once outside it, the gym turned of, Vegeta yelled, "WOMAN! FOOD!"

Krillin winced, and commented, "I would never dare say that to 18, she'd kick my ass."

Vegeta snorted. When he didn't get an answer, he got annoyed. Usually she at least acknowledged his command with a tirade of profanities before making him food. "Let's go find her."

The two walked toward the lab, and only shortly after Bulma had sunk down into crying, they found her doing exactly that, holding Goten close, who was crying along with her. "What the hell happened here? Why are you crying, woman? And where is the other brat of that third class clown!?" Vegeta demanded harshly, looking around, noticing that he couldn't feel Gohan anymore. From Krillin's concerned face, he knew he didn't feel Gohan either.

Bulma's wails grew louder, "I KILLED HIM! THE POD! GOTEN! THEN SURGE AND GONE!"

"Woman!" Vegeta demanded harshly, and Bulma looked up at him, her wails pausing for the moment, tears still streaking down her cheeks. "You talk no sense! Get up off the floor, act like the queen you are instead of a little girl, and tell what happened, slowly and in detail!"

Krillin watched, and remarkably Bulma got up, still clutching the crying Goten. She breathed in steadily, and said, "We were preparing the launch, and Goten somehow crawled down to the lab." She sniffed once, and bit by bit got her bearings back. Goten blinked, and slowly stopped crying as well when calm returned around him. "I couldn't stop the launch anymore, only a few seconds left. Gohan flew down to the lab, threw Goten clear, but he got sucked along. I checked the readings, there was a power surge, and the pod was gone, I received no more sensor telemetry. I couldn't find it anywhere, it didn't arrive in the dimension it was supposed to, it must have been destroyed, along with Gohan!"

Bulma was about to start crying again, and Vegeta shook his head, "The brat is an ascended Super Saiyan. Trust me, woman, a little trip through dimensional space isn't going to kill him."

"Yeah," Krillin added with confidence. "Gohan is way too tough for that!"

"But there's no air, what if it became a long trip, he suffocated to death," Bulma replied with pain in her heart.

Vegeta shook his head, and made a dismissive gesture with his hands, "I'm not that lucky. Trust me, Kakarotto's brat will hound me forever, he's still alive somewhere."

Krillin laughed at the half joke. "He's got a point, Bulma. Listen, if Gohan is alive, he'll probably try to contact us."

Bulma's eyes were wide with hope, and she quickly handed Goten over to Vegeta, and went back to the control panel, saying, "You're right."

As Bulma went to work, Vegeta looked at Goten with disgust, and handed him over to Krillin. "He looks far too much like that idiot of a father of his," Vegeta said gruffly, and Krillin smiled at the baby. The two of them walked over to behind Bulma and watched her work.

Bulma scanned through interdimensional signals, discarded all natural ones quickly. A few signals seemed interesting, but dismissed them because they couldn't be coming from Gohan. She started with dimensions close to the destination of the pod, and then slowly expanded the search. After a few seconds, her eyes widened with joy. She pushed several buttons, and moments later a hazy visage appeared on a screen in the panel. Snow crackled on it, but there was a person in there, all though stretched out, in front of a blue sky, and despite the interference, it was obvious that it was Gohan. "Bulma!" his enthusiastic voice sounded, dispelling any kind of doubt that could possibly still linger.

"Gohan!" Bulma yelled out with happiness. "Oh, god! For a moment there I thought you were dead!"

"Moment?" Gohan asked. "How long has it been since I left?"

"Uh, a minute and a half, two at most," Bulma answered uncertain.

Gohan nodded in confirmation, "I've been here longer, more than double that I think. Time is moving a little faster here, I think."

"Hold on," Bulma answered, and pushed a few buttons. She had overcome that problem during talks with Littica, by artificially making corrections. The stretching in the picture disappeared, and it cleared up a little, but there was still plenty of interference. "That's better, yeah, time moves differently over there," Bulma told Gohan. "How's the pod, and the monkey!?"

"The pod is in shambles," Gohan told Bulma, looking to his right for a moment. "And the monkey . . . well, splattered . . . cooked from the inside out."

"It failed then," Bulma whispered disappointed.

Gohan shook his head, saying, "Oh, I don't know. I transformed during the trip, the pod wasn't designed to handle a Super Saiyan outside of it. I don't know whether the monkey died because of a design flaw, or because of me." Bulma perked up. Gohan added, "Bulma, is there a way for me to get back? To repair this ship."

"Possibly, but if the ship is in shambles it will take time, not to mention you don't really fit in it, you'd be cramping inside, and you'd probably have to find replacement parts if some are fried, I could talk you through any repairs though . . . any sign of civilization?" Bulma asked suddenly, picturing going walking among cave men, which would pull the plug on any repair plans.

"There's a big city right down there. A _/really/_ big city. Why?" Gohan answered Bulma.

"Does it seem technologically advanced? Because if it the civilization is fifty years behind ours, they will not have the necessary replacements. If they are very advanced, understand about dimensions and space travel and aliens, they might happily send you on your way back," Bulma explained. "Do you see any anti-grav hover cars for example?"

Gohan took a few steps, and looked down. "No, but I do see normal cars, vaguely, and I can see big passenger jets, one almost flew into me earlier."

"They're on the border of possible then," Bulma said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I have only seen this city though, nothing more, this could be a less advanced city than the others, I would have to go down there and find out," Gohan replied thinking himself. "It seems I'm stuck here for a long time though."

Bulma's eyes widened and nodded, "You will probably need money to pay for food, and a place to stay. Vegeta! Go buy diamonds and jewels and stuff! Worth - make it a ten thousand dollars worth, that should be enough for now." Bulma turned back to Gohan, "They should be valuable over there as well, you can sell them, and have enough money. I'll send it over through one of the previous versions of the pod without life support!"

"Ok. I'll need enough money to pay for school as well. My mom will go hysterical if I didn't keep up with school. Tell her I _/am/_ keeping up with school, ok? I don't want her to worry about that," Gohan told Bulma.

"Ok," Bulma said too excited to realize the danger in that.

"And a mobile communicator please, this thing is bulky and I don't know if it keeps up," Gohan requested, and Bulma nodded. "Right then," he said resolutely. "I'll go explore down below, seeking a nice apartment. Just send the rocks over, I'll sense the dimensional disturbance and come right back here, then I'll know more. Bye, Bulma." Bulma greeted back and they severed the connection.

Bulma turned around calmly, and suddenly her eyes flew open when she thought about the things that need to be done. Her face went white with mortal fear, and looked at the two men, "CHICHI'S GOING TO KILL ME!!" Krillin and Vegeta took a step back. "You two have got to go with me, when I tell her what happened."

"Uh, uh, no way," Krillin said with dread. "I'm going nowhere near Chichi when she's told what happened to Gohan. She'll explode."

"Me neither, that woman is insane," Vegeta answered his wife, taking a few steps back. "Besides, I've got jewels to buy." Vegeta turned around and started for the exit.

"I'm coming with you, you probably need help carrying," Krillin added quickly joining Vegeta. "I'll put Goten with Trunks and his grandparents."

"We're going to Chichi _/after/_ we send the jewels to Gohan," Bulma growled out loud, stopping the two men disappointed in their tracks. "If I have to tell Gohan he doesn't have any money to food and clothe him yet, she'll go completely off the deep end."

"We're not going with you," Vegeta commanded his wife.

"Yes, you are," Bulma told them firmly. "Or no sex for a month Vegeta."

"You wouldn't . . ." Vegeta told already in a defeated tone.

Krillin slapped Vegeta cheerily on his back, and said, "Cheer up, buddy. It could be worse; I could have to go with you."

"If you're not coming, Krillin, I'll tell 18 you're cheating," Bulma stated, her arms across her chest, eyes closed calmly, every bit the frosty queen Vegeta had told her she was.

"What!? But I'm not cheating!" Krillin called out loud.

Bulma grinned at him, "Whose word do you think she's going to believe? Her man's, or a fellow woman's?"

"Mine," Krillin replied with certainty.

"Eventually," Bulma stated with an evil grin. "But what of in the mean time?"

"She'd tear you limb from limb when she realizes you lied," Krillin answered with a white face.

Bulma nodded, "I'm willing to risk that, are you?" Krillin lowered his head in defeat. Bulma's smile grew wider.

Krillin than turned toward Vegeta and growled at him, "This is all your fault! She's your wife! You should have her under control!" Vegeta blinked, and shrugged apologetically.

*****

Gohan walked along the giant city, which he found out was named Tokyo. He looked around in awe. The place was crowded, packed, one giant building after another. He had been to cities in his home dimension, but none of them were exactly like this. At home the cities seemed calm, tranquil, this was like a giant ant hill. He had to admit: it had a certain charm to it.

The language he didn't quite understand, although it was close to his native language, it was different enough he couldn't readily understand it. He needed all his cognitive, and deductive capabilities to figure out writings and snippets of information from nearby conversations. He looked up at a billboard. His eyes widened, it was in World Standard. "English," Gohan muttered, remembering what Littica called it.

"Yeah, English," a guy answered. Gohan looked to his left and saw the guy sitting against the wall, a drifter with no money. "Got some money for me, kid?"

Gohan pulled on his purple gi, and answered him with a smile, "You see any pockets on this?"

"Shit," the guy cursed, realizing the kid really didn't have any money on him. It was a surprising refreshment from people just ignoring him, or lying through their teeth about not having any money.

English! Gohan stretched out his mind, testing the whole planet. Nope, he couldn't detect Littica. The chance he was off planet was slim to none, Gohan knew, which meant this was not Littica's dimension, it just carried the same name for the language. He looked around and found a row of vending machines, one had papers in it. Gohan did a double take when he saw what the other vending machines contained; from porn to booze, it had it all. Gohan's eye caught a half-naked girl on the cover of a magazine, and then quickly shook his head. He had more important stuff to do. He went over the papers and found an English one, and started reading. Idioms, and a few catch phrases were different from back home he noticed, but the grammar, and virtually all of the spelling, and if not the pronunciation of the words were exactly the same. Weird, Gohan contemplated. Busy people filed along him on their way to wherever they were going. English, or Standard as he knew it seemed pretty much the same everywhere, while his own language in the very same region was different. His native language was more complex, he realized, it gave the potential for greater changes in much a smaller amount of time and space.

Gohan walked along, carefully taking everything in. Suddenly he realized, that using English as a translation base, he could probably very quickly learn the native language here. He nodded in satisfaction at that realization. Gohan continued walking taking in the sights, and eventually found himself in front an internet cafe. Gohan figured they were expecting you to buy drinks, but if he could find an empty place, and quickly look up some schools, housing, and jewelers he could get out before anyone noticed.

So decided he did exactly that. He entered, found one remaining place, and quickly clicked on a link to a search engine. The names were all wrong, back home they were named so differently, but luckily the description 'search engine' remained in tact, and he started typing away, at first with difficulty adjusting to the language, but soon he got lots of information, that he wrote down on conveniently provided notepad and pen. Most of what he had he couldn't read right away, he would have to do some deciphering for that, but that was a question of work. Once done, he went outside and walked along aimlessly, until he felt the spike of interdimensional energy.

*****

Gohan reached the place where he had landed not much later. A second pod stood waiting, it was small, not more than half a meter in full. He opened it, and picked out the heavy bag, chock full of jewels as well as the new communicator.

Smiling, Gohan turned on the communicator and looked into Bulma's face. "Hey, Bulma," Gohan greeted, Bulma smiled at him. "Haven't really had time to explore everything here, but I've got the essentials: housing, schooling, and jewelers. I'll look around for the rest later."

"Great, call back regularly, even if we're not repairing," Bulma requested concerned.

"Ok, I'll be able to handle myself, don't worry," Gohan told his friend.

Bulma nodded and said nervously, "I'm going to face your mother now."

Gohan winced, "Good luck, you'll need it." Bulma gave him a hopeless look.

*****

Bulma, Vegeta and Krillin arrived at the Son home. Bulma landed the flying van smoothly, and they all filed out, Krillin holding a sleeping Goten.

They slowly, reluctantly, walked toward the door of the house, and Chichi came out, she had only just returned from her trip to the city. "Hello, what are you all doing here? You didn't have to bring back my sons," Chichi greeted friendly. Then she stopped, and looked around. "Where is Gohan!?" she demanded.

"Well . . ." Bulma started.

*****

They placed the unconscious Chichi gently on her bed. Vegeta leaned back against a wall, and Bulma nervously sat down on a chair. Krillin walked in the room without Goten, who he had placed in his crib. "She took that pretty well," the ex-monk commented.

Vegeta snorted. "Pretty well?" Bulma asked stricken. Then thought over the alternatives, and added, "I guess you're right."

The three of them waited, and a few minutes later Chichi slowly groaned as she awoke. "Ugh, what a horrible dream," Chichi muttered and slowly opened her eyes. She saw Bulma, Krillin, and Vegeta, and continued, "I dreamt you three came here, and told me . . ." Chichi was silent, so were the others. Suddenly she sat bolt upright, and sent a terrifying gaze at Bulma who shrank back. "YOU GOT MY GOHAN STUCK IN ANOTHER DIMENSION!?!?!?" Chichi screamed out with supreme anger.

"It was an accid-" Bulma tried, and got a fist in her chin, sending her backward, the chair toppled over and she lay prone on the floor.

Chichi walked over, picked her up and screamed, "YOU LITTLE, BITCH!!" Bulma wiggled out of the raven-haired woman's grasp. She started running circles around the room, with Chichi in hot pursuit. "GET BACK HERE! I WILL MAKE YOU PAY! YOU SENT MY GOHAN INTO A HELLISH PLACE THAT HE KNOWS NOTHING OFF! I WILL HURT YOU, YOU GREEN-HAIRED SLUT!!" Vegeta and Krillin looked amused at the couple. Suddenly the pursuit ended when Chichi just stood still. Then she sank to the ground, wailing out, tears spraying from her eyes, "GOHAN!!"

"We'll . . . get him . . . back," Bulma panted out, completely out of breath. She really should work out more she realized. "He'll have food . . . and everything . . . he'll even . . . go to school . . . nothing . . . to worry . . . about."

"Yeah," Krillin added casually. "Just think of it as a test for when Gohan goes out of the house."

Chichi gave Krillin the evil eye, and he paled. Chichi got up grumbling. Tentatively the three of them followed her, hearing her mutter. Suddenly a closet door was heard opening, and the sound of a frying-pan being pulled from a stack followed it. The eyes of the three of them widened. Moments later Chichi, holding the frying-pan came back into the dark corridor. As Chichi charged them, Bulma, Krillin, and Vegeta fled. "GET BACK HERE AND YOU'LL GET WHAT YOU DESERVE!!" Chichi screamed out as she ran after them.

"Couldn't keep your big mouth shut, huh? This is one fine mess you've gotten me into, baldy," Vegeta growled at the ex-monk running next to him.

"Hey, I resent that, I'm not bald anymore," Krillin replied while running from the insane woman behind them.


	2. Chapter 2: Settling In

_Chapter 2: Settling In_

Gohan looked around his newly acquired apartment. The first owner of an apartment that he had went to had practically kicked him out. It didn't take long for him to figure it out; in his home dimension the use of name suffixes had eroded away over the last half century - here it was very much in use it seemed. The pod in the right corner sucked away even more space from the already small apartment. He had flown it over under cover of darkness, flying slow enough not to generate a ki flame which, in darkness, would have been seen halfway across the country. The cargo container had returned home. Getting an ID hadn't been too hard; giving a sob story of his parents' death, and his decision to come live in the city, but some thugs had stolen everything, had the woman behind the counter reach out with her mother's instincts and issue him a new one. Getting some proper clothes had been easy after that.

He had just finished breakfast, it was 7:30 and it was time to go inspect a few Lower Secondary schools as they called it here, to see if he could enroll. First appointment; Juuban Lower Secondary school. He walked over to his shoddy tv, showing the breakfast news, and went to turn it off. He waited a moment as the announcer spoke of a disturbance at the movie studio, and some heroines called 'Sailor Soldiers', defeating a monster. He turned it off right after that.

*****

"Aaah! I'm late!" Usagi screamed as she raced out the door of her house. She really should learn to get up on time, she thought. She was wearing her school uniform, a knee length blue skirt, a white shirt on top, a sailor-like large blue collar, and a red ribbon in front of her chest. Her hair was the most original ever, on top of her head her long hair was made in two knots, and from those knots two very long bundles of hair hung down to below her waist. She raced along, passing house after house, building after building. A cat suddenly jumped from a roof next to her, it was dark gray and had a yellow crescent moon on its forehead. Usagi stumbled in surprise, but unexpectantly she managed to catch herself, and ran along, "Luna! Don't do that again! Bad cat!"

"We need to talk Usagi," Luna answered surprisingly in human speech. "Last night Artemis was checking up on Ami, and he found one of her sensors detecting a very strange energy signature, incidently at about the same that I was watching over Rei and she had a quick headache."

"Not now, Luna," Usagi called out exasperated, running along with all her speed. "I'm late for school, can't you see that. We can do this after . . . no wait, after school I'm going with Naru to the mall."

"Usagi, this is serious," Luna told the blonde with some irritation.

Usagi stuck out her tongue at the cat, and as she rounded a corner said, "So is-," BANG! Usagi smashed face first into something that felt like concrete, and fell back on her ass unceremoniously, then the rest of her body followed and she was lying on the pavement, staring up at the air. Luna immediately shut up, hoping she hadn't been heard. For a moment Usagi was silent, then she squinted her eyes, and cried out, tears spraying everywhere, "BWAAAAwahahah! That huuuuurt! What was the number of that truck!?"

"You should look where you're going," a friendly voice broke through Usagi's wailing. The girl blinked, and looked into two amazing deep dark eyes, set in a handsome face. The boy couldn't be older than her, probably even a little younger, he held out a helping hand. Amazed, Usagi took the offered hand and let herself be pulled up. The guy was a little taller than her, about as tall as Rei she noticed, and he probably still had his growth spurt coming. He wore a stylish set of jeans, and a smooth shirt that looked very becoming on him. "I'm Son Gohan," the boy introduced himself.

"Tsukino Usagi," Usagi returned the favor, blushing embarrassedly at her earlier behavior.

"Nice to meet you, Usagi-san," Gohan told her with a grin. Luna felt relieved, the boy didn't seem to have heard her, at least he wasn't acting all strange looking for the source of a second voice.

Usagi's eyes widened when she remembered, "I'm sorry, no time, I'm late for school, bye." And she ran off, around Gohan this time. Gohan's eyebrows raised as he watched her run off. He smiled, and sped after her, quickly gaining on her and running next to her.

"You wouldn't be going to Juuban Lower Secondary would you?" Gohan asked, startling Usagi.

The girl looked at him, huffing and puffing with effort, while Gohan ran next to her comfortably. "Yes . . . huff . . . you too . . . puff?" Usagi asked with surprise.

Gohan shrugged. "That's my destination. Meeting with the principal to see if I can enroll." Gohan grinned at her. Usagi smiled back, and together they ran to school. They reached the front door, where one teacher was about to close the doors.

"You two are late," the teacher scolded.

Usagi's eyes started to water, but Gohan said, "No, fifteen minutes early, appointment with the principal at 8:15."

The teacher blinked as the two teens entered the building, and said, "Oh, right, he mentioned something. But wasn't that only one . . . ?" The teacher looked around but they were already gone. She then shrugged and went about her business.

"The principal's office is that way," Usagi pointed, as they stood in front of her classroom.

"Thanks," Gohan said, smiling at her. "Perhaps I'll see you around, Bunny-san. Bye." And then Gohan was off.

*Bunny-san?* Usagi thought distractedly, as she opened the door to the classroom.

"You're late again, Tsukino!" the teacher scolded.

"It's all his fault," Usagi said pointing behind her. "If he hadn't slammed into me . . ."

"Him who?" the teacher asked sternly. Usagi looked back, Gohan was gone. "Are you lying to me?"

"No, he . . ." Usagi tried to explain.

A wooden sign on a rope was thrown at Usagi, and the teacher told her, "You can stand outside."

"That's not fair!" Usagi cried out as she went back outside. "Bwahahaha!!"

*****

"Hello," the principal greeted, as Gohan came in the door of his cramped office. The principal stood up, showing courtesy for the greeting. He gave an ever so slight bow, and added., "I'm principal Hattoyama. You are Son Gohan, correct?"

Gohan bowed somewhat deeper, and said, "Son Gohan is correct, sir. I have to inquire about enrolling, and I would like to see the possible curriculums, and a quick tour. I hope you understand I will be exploring other schools as well."

"Of course," the principal said, quite amazed at the maturity in such a young boy. "Please follow me."

The tour and the curriculums took about an hour, and then Gohan and the principal were back in his office. Gohan knew it wasn't the best school in the city, but it certainly wasn't bad either. He really didn't feel like going through this another few times. Plus, he already had made a friend sort of - she had given him the evil eye when they had passed her in the hall holding two buckets of water and a sign around her neck saying, 'I was late, and lied to the teacher.' His decision was made pretty quickly. "Principal Hattoyama, I've seen your school, and I'm impressed enough that I do not feel the need to look at other schools, I will enroll here, sir," Gohan explained politely.

"Splendid!" the principal called out with a smile. "Coincidentally, there is another student here who lives alone and has lost her parents. Her name is Kino Makoto. I don't know how much one would like to interact with others, or if it would just painfully remind you, but it is something to think about."

Gohan's eyebrows rose in surprise somewhat and then said, "I suggest starting my first school day tomorrow, so I can buy a uniform now, is that ok, sir?"

"Perfect," the principal said as he brought out the papers for Gohan to sign.

*****

Luckily, this time Usagi had remembered her lunch and she happily dug into it. She and her best friend were sitting at an outdoor table across from each other and Naru watched Usagi eat, or should I say stuff herself. No matter how often she saw Usagi's throat and mouth put away food like a black hole, it never ceased to amaze her.

"I'fm tephin yms, Naru. If I hafn't bumped ifto thod b'y, I wousstf been mn time!" Usagi spat out around her food, as she chewed it down, and gulped it away with a speed that wouldn't make a Saiyan parent concerned.

Naru felt disturbed for a moment when she realized she could actually understand that gibberish, but quickly shook it away. "Really? Was he good looking?" Naru asked interested.

Umino who sat across from her, next to Usagi, almost choked on his drink and looked jealously at the redhead. Usagi nodded, "Yeah, prftty good. Tall, aboot ten centimefefs tallfr thn me. Dark eyes, and a very well trained body." Usagi was through her food and looked hungrily at Umino's lunch. The boy quickly shielded his bread, and started eating a little faster himself before the blonde would eat his. *But he's no Mamoru,* Usagi thought wistfully, wishing her unofficial boyfriend could remember her.

"So, did you see the Sailor Soldiers at the audition too, Naru?" Usagi asked enthusiastically, a little of her ego slipping in.

Naru smiled, "Actually, yes. They were so cool battling that monster."

"Yeah, _/but/_ no movie career!" Usagi said, her eyes overly sad, tears threatening to fall. "We were going to be big movie stars, and every handsome movie star would fall to their knees before us!"

"I told you, you two were going overboard," Umino said, resetting his glasses.

Usagi was rudely interrupted in her fantasy and bit at the boy, "KNOW IT ALL!"

*****

Getting a uniform hadn't been too difficult. Gohan stood outside the clothing shop, holding the uniform wrapped in plastic in his right hand. He thought over what to do next, and decided to go to a bookshop to buy some necessary books. Thus he stepped out into the busy street and walked along.

After a while he realized that he was walking aimlessly, and so he turned to a guy walking past, and asked for directions. Thanking him politely he walked in the direction the guy said. He reached a narrow side alley, and went over the guy's directions. If he was right, this could be a shortcut. Deciding a little exploring could be good, and he had plenty of time to spare, he entered the alley to his left. He walked along with a brisk pace, until as he had guessed the alley ended at a calm parallel street.

Gohan looked left and right, calmly taking in his new surroundings. A few beat-up cars drove along, passing by a tall brunette girl, with her hair in a pony tail. Gohan grew suspicious. The cars were going along very slowly. The three cars stopped, heavy pounding music coming from inside, and eight men, each of them dressed in leather and chains, got out of the cars.

"Hey, baby," the leader guy called. "How is it walking all alone? We could give you protection for the big bad men." His companions chuckled.

The brunette stopped and looked at them, she projected a calm exterior, and said, "I don't need any protection from bad men, they would sooner need protection from me." Then the brunette carried on walking. Gohan had barely heard her say it. He was across the street and some meters away. He slowed down his walk toward the scene, after hearing her say that, deciding to let her handle it on her own. He reached a place exactly across the street of the group of people, and stayed to watch.

The leader placed himself in front of the girl, and rode his groin up and down her, saying, "Come now, baby."

The brunette's hand rapidly snaked out finding the guy's balls, but she was not interested in taking the guy up on his offer. She squeezed, hard, and kept squeezing. The guy went white, yelling out his pain, his hands went to hers, but was unable to do anything. "I am not in the mood," the girl said, her grip tightening even more, and the guy sank to his knees. His minions looked astonished. "Last warning, get lost." The girl let go of the begging, and wheezing man and calmly walked onward.

"Get her," the leader groaned out, cradling his balls.

The men took out bats, knives and chains, and attacked the girl. For a moment Gohan felt the urge to intervene, but that quickly disappeared with the girl shot out a backward snap kick, catching one of the men square in the jaw, and sent him stumbling backward. A guy swung a chain, and the girl let it wrap around her wrist. She grabbed the chain and pulled. First she slammed him into a wall. Then, when he was dazed, she pulled him back making him crash into two of his buddies. She ducked underneath a swing with a bat, grabbed the guy's wrist and slammed it on her knee, making him let go of the bat instantly. A fist to his right cheek sent him tumbling backward. She grabbed another guy by the wrist of his knife-holding hand. She pulled him along rapidly, and the guy got sliced by a different attacker with a knife, who promptly got a foot in his face for his trouble.

*Wow,* Gohan thought with a grin, his arms folded across his chest, as he watched the girl going through the men like they were tissue paper. *Not many girls can do that where I come from.* Another guy went down, a round house kick sent one flying over the hood of a parked car, and the girl pounced on a guy who was just getting up. Gohan watched the leader get up behind her, recovered from his excruciating ordeal. He held up a steal baseball bat, and with an evil glint in his eyes he sneaked up on the brunette.

"UH, UH, UH!" Gohan called out loud, gaining both of their attention instantly. Gohan waggled a finger from his folded arms at the leader. "Attacking from the back isn't very nice."

The girl looked from the leader to Gohan, and back again. Then she grinned as she attacked. She grabbed the bat, and kneed him in the stomach. He doubled over with an 'oof'. The brunette threw the bat aside, and finished the leader off with an uppercut to his chin. He sailed a meter through the air and dropped unconscious to the floor.

The girl checked out her handy work for a moment, making sure the unconscious men, and the occasional conscious but moaning ones weren't a threat anymore, and then turned to Gohan. "Thanks for the warning!" she called out, waving at Gohan appreciatively.

Gohan grinned back, saying, "No problem. I'm Son Gohan!"

"Kino Makoto," the girl introduced herself. "You'll be going to Juuban I see," Makoto said with a smile indicating the uniform. "I go there as well."

*Kino Makoto! The girl with dead parents,* Gohan thought, recognizing the name from what the principal had said. "Yeah, I enrolled this morning, so I'll probably see you there," Gohan added with a smile and waving goodbye. Makoto waved back, and both continued on their way.

*****

Gohan returned to his rented apartment some time later, and turned on the tv that had come with it. He looked at it for a few moments, and then went to the pod. He got the toolbox containing the speciality tools for electrical circuits, then he got the booklet with preliminary instructions that had come with the cargo pod, and went to work.

After several hours of repairs Gohan sat back and smiled at a job well done. The ship was nowhere near being finished, but it would do for now. Gohan casually looked over to the tv, the music and sounds beckoning him. *Stupid,* he thought. He had completely forgotten about the still running apparatus. The news was on, and there was a section on the unexpected return of the Sailor Soldiers, who had stopped a monster from killing people in a film studio a day earlier and today another one. Gohan blinked as images of the Sailor Soldiers battling some monsters were shown. Since most of the footage was taken outside, and not inside a movie studio, it was obvious this footage was not of yesterday. Gohan raised his eyebrows as he saw the micro skirts the girls were wearing. *Not bad,* Gohan thought with a grin, and quickly wiped it off his face. He wondered if they deliberately wore such revealing clothes to distract enemies, sexually speaking, or trying to get their enemies to underestimate them. It could be an effective strategy. Something caught his eyes and he looked closer at the screen; wasn't there something familiar about them? But the screen was just lacking the quality needed to allow Gohan to put a picture on it. The screen wasn't good, the footage couldn't be good, combine them and you get really, really bad.

When this Sailor Soldier item was over, and the anchor got back in the picture, he turned off the tv, and went to bed.

*****

The next day

This was boring. Gohan sat in the back of the classroom and looked forward at the blackboard and the teacher going on and on about a math problem. Gohan had already had it back home, so not only was the teacher boring, he was also retelling something Gohan already knew. He missed his friends from his classroom, he wished they were here, they would have been able to spice up this place. Of course it didn't help that it seemed in the sciences, and thus in mathematical classes his dimension was further ahead. As a result the classes back home in those subjects were given at a sightly faster pace. Ugh, this was horrible. Gohan sank forward, laying his head down upon his arms, letting his eyelids flutter.

"Son Gohan!" the voice thundered. Gohan sat up instantly, looking around bewildered. His fellow students snickered and laughed. Gohan realized to his embarrassment that he had fallen asleep. The teacher standing right next to him stated, "I am disappointed in you. As the new student I would have expected you to pay attention."

"I apologize . . ." Gohan tried.

"No!" the teacher told him sternly, a smirk on his face. Gohan blinked up at him. "I should have known better. Obviously you already know all this, please complete the problem. If you can't, you'll go outside, if you can, you can go back to sleep," the teacher said with a sarcastic tone of voice that made it obvious he thought he'd humiliate Gohan in front of the class some more before sending him outside.

Gohan blinked and looked at the board. He peered at the problem, calmly let it sink in, making the teacher smile. Then Gohan answered, "Two X squared plus 3 X minus 5, sensei."

The teacher's smile instantly faltered, and he looked over at the board, doing the same calculations in his own head. "That . . . is correct," he stated dumbfounded. The classroom instantly became silent and looked back at the newcomer. One of them, a blue-haired girl, looked back with a lot of interest.

*****

Finally the class was over and Gohan quickly packed his things and left the classroom. He had no idea how he was going to survive that class in the next few weeks to months. The teacher he had for mathematics back home made the entire subject a feast to be part of . . . but this. Gohan shuddered. Suddenly a blue-haired girl pulled up next to him. She batted her eye lashes at him and introduced herself, "Hello, I'm Mizuno Ami, we had math together."

Gohan looked at the girl, and gave her a slight smile, saying, "Son Gohan. Don't you think the teacher is a bore?"

Ami giggled, and nodded, then asked, "What's your next subject?"

"Chemistry," Gohan answered the girl.

"So is mine!" Ami answered enthusiastically, and added, "I thought you were awesome back there. Nobody in the class knows how to differentiate, let alone by head."

Gohan gave a shrug. Ami quickly pointed to a corridor to the right. He gave her a thankful smile and they entered the hallway. "It isn't that hard, once you know how." Ami's face brightened, Gohan actually had some brains! He might actually be able to keep up with her, although she doubted that, at the very least he'd stay much closer than anyone else in the school, teachers included.

"Really?" Ami asked interested. "Where are you from?"

"From the rural country," Gohan answered her, and gave her the name of the place he had memorized. "I came here to live after my parents died," he added, giving her the half truth.

"That's so sad," Ami said softly her eyes ready to water.

"I get by," Gohan dismissed her concern quickly, he really had no intention of making a girl cry in the middle of the school because he lied to her. They reached the classroom at that moment, and Ami was shaken from her sad mood by it, and Gohan's dismissal. When Ami didn't go in immediately, Gohan decided to go first, and Ami quickly checked out the rest of his body. *Oh, my,* she thought as she saw the way he moved, and the smooth muscles in his lower forearm that he had bared. *Nice butt too.* Ami shook her head mortified. This was not her! Mizuno Ami didn't go after boys, her head stayed firmly in the books. But oh, he read the books as well _/and/_ looked like he worked out regularly _/and/_ was handsome. She'd never met a combination like that, and her heart started beating a little faster. She shook her head again, as she took a seat next to Gohan, uncharacteristically for her in the back of the room. *Mizuno Ami, don't go there, you're not like that, you have school to finish first! You want to be a doctor!* she scolded herself, but her traitorous eyes slowly moved to regard Gohan again.

Gohan gave her a smile, and she smiled back. The room had long, stretched out tables - wooden ones - and they contained sinks and faucets, as well as gas outlets, conveniently already linked to a burner. The walls were lined with cabinets, which were filled with bowls, glass jars, microscopes, etc., an opening in the front of the room lead to an adjacent room where the chemicals were kept.

"Hello, class," a cheery feminine voice called out, right after which the door audibly closed. Gohan looked over to check out his teacher, and . . . his eyes were glued to her, staring, following her to the front, along with all the other boys. It was no mystery really, Gohan was a healthy thirteen-year-old boy, his hormones had just started raging, and the teacher . . . The teacher wore high heels, pantyhose - or stockings - a short tight skirt, that reached half way her thighs, and a tight sweater that showed off her well-endowed chest, although not too well-endowed. Finally her face was lightly made up, luscious lips, fantastic face, and deep, expressive eyes, that were pools of green, finally her hair was a deep blonde, and they hung loosely over her shoulders. In short she was most boys' wet dream while still looking like a competent strong woman, and not like a woman going out trying to attract every man like bees to honey.

Ami noticed the boys staring at the teacher, as they returned a 'hello', and was unperturbed as usual, although the other girls seemed more than a little annoyed. She looked back over to Gohan, and noticed him staring and following the teacher with his eyes, and she was instantly disappointed, and then quickly gained the same annoyed look as the other girls.

The teacher calmly pulled out a sheet, and skimmed over it. "Ah, a new name," she remarked, seemingly oblivious to her effect on the boys, although more than likely she knew exactly what effect she had, she just chose to ignore it. "Son Gohan?" she asked, and looked up into the room. With a smile - which upset Ami more - Gohan raised a finger, and the teacher noticed him, smiling back - which, not surprisingly, incensed Ami even more. "Hello, I'm Miss Akimoto, welcome to my class," Miss Akimoto told him with a smile, until she noticed Ami sitting next to him. Usually she was sitting right up front, and the teacher frowned for a moment, but just as easily became cheery again. "I see you've chosen to sit next to Ami. That's good, she's the best student here, if there's anything you might not understand she'll be able to explain them," Miss Akimoto explained to Gohan with a smile.

Gohan looked over to Ami, who smiled shyly. He turned his head back to Miss Akimoto, and said, "I'll be sure to remember that, Miss. Thank you." He gently inclined his head, and the teacher nodded.

Miss Akimoto's smile disappeared then, and all business - but not without losing her melodic, and friendly tone - she said, "Ok, class. Yesterday at the end of our hour we quickly brushed over what happens to water when we put electricity in it. Today we're going to do the practical experiment. Each pair will go into the room beyond, and under supervision you will put electricity in soapy water, and one of you will get to hold a lit match against the formed bubbles, and you'll see what happens. In the mean time, the rest of you can do your self studies and answer the questions, obviously if you move ahead so far you get to other experiments, call me first." Miss Akimoto than looked around the classroom for a few moments, "Good, well then, let's get to work."

*****

Gohan walked out of the classroom after the chemistry class was over. A moment later Ami joined Gohan, and she said, "Hey, Gohan-san."

"Oh, hi, again," Gohan answered as he contemplated the girl. She was nice, but she was getting a little too clingy.

"Hi, I just wanted to ask . . . uhm . . . uh," Ami started and looked into Gohan's dark, dark eyes. She shivered, and then forced herself to say, "if you . . . uh . . . wouldliketodohomeworkwithme . . . at my home . . . ?"

Gohan grinned at her, and asked, "Like doing homework, huh?" Ami blushed for multiple reasons, and looked up at him, nodding a little timidly. Gohan thought it over some. Part of him told him not to get involved with anyone here since he'd be leaving soon enough. Another part of him told him that didn't he think Ami got clingy? But that was soon squashed aside because she seemed to have a legitimate reason for being close to him. A final thought occurred to Gohan: that if he was going to be stuck here he might as well have a friend, he preferred it to be a boy of course, but Lime wasn't so bad once he got to know her, wasn't she? "Ok, Ami-san," Gohan answered Ami with a smile. "As long as homework isn't the only thing we're going to be doing." Ami nodded enthusiastically. "What time do you finish today? We could meet at the main entrance and go together?" Ami nodded happily, answering she was finished at four in the afternoon. "So am I," Gohan said. "Great, we'll meet then."

The two of them passed next to the announcement board and Gohan's eye fell on the martial art tournament poster. He stopped abruptly, and went over to it. He read over the poster and muttered out loud, "I think I'll enter this."

"You know martial arts?" Ami asked a little surprised. She hadn't expected that from the brainy kid. Of course now that he turned around and her eyes shifted to his muscular arms again, she realized she could have known that one. *Stupid! Keep your head on straight!* she thought to herself in annoyance.

"Yeah," Gohan told her, and they walked on again. "Quite some, but I've got to go this way for my next class."

"Ok, bye, Gohan-san" Ami said giving a small wave and then he disappeared into a side corridor. Ami sighed and then resumed on her way a spring in her step at realizing she was going to have him over.

*****

Ami walked along the school grounds dreamily at lunch time. She was woken by a familiar voice calling her name. She blinked and then turned and walked over to Usagi sitting at the table. Naru, Umino, and Makoto were present as well, and she sat down next to the blond, and across from Naru. "You seemed dreamy, Ami," Usagi poked around. "Seen a hot guy?"

"Not Ami," Naru started but was startled by Ami's sigh.

"It's so not me, and I don't understand why I can't keep my thoughts off of him, but . . ." Ami sighed again, looking dreamy for a moment.

"Makoto's got it good too," Usagi said enthusiastically, ramming a sandwich into her mouth. "Mft a gfy yesterdfay."

"Ah, I hardly know him, he just gave me a heads up when a guy tried to bash my body in with a metal bat," Makoto half dismissed the event. "He looked pretty good though." She took a bite from her sandwich.

"Yeah, fantastic arms, and . . . uh . . . well," Ami said looking embarrassed.

Makoto nodded, "Yeah, warrior's arms, and a very handsome face. He reminds me of the boyfriend I had."

"Lovely dark eyes," Ami filled in. Makoto nodded again.

"Son Gohan," both of them stated at the same time. Both their eyes went wide with shock, looking at each other. The other three looked a little surprised, and then Naru giggled, Umino seemed he wanted to be very far away from the impending estrogen explosion, and Usagi joined Naru's giggling.

"He's mine, I saw him first," Makoto told Ami with a growl.

Ami looked back at the brunette, and told her, "Seeing doesn't make him yours, _/I/_ have already talked to him. _/I/_ have already invited him over to my house, and he's coming this afternoon."

"A good friend would back off," Makoto returned with more dangerous eyes.

Ami returned the stare, and made it just as bad, as she said, "Exactly, especially seeing as you bean stalk would make him look stupid."

"I wouldn't, and he doesn't care about that sort of thing," Makoto bit back, a hand flexing reflexively into a fist.

"Plus, you can't keep up with him. He's smart, almost as smart as I am, he'd think you retarded," Ami added, insulting Makoto, her deadly stare never wavering.

"Why I . . ."

"GOHAN-SAN!!" Usagi suddenly called out, startling the two other girls out of their staring contest. "OVER HERE! COME JOIN US!" Usagi felt a little mischievous, as well as romantic. It would be so cool if one of her friends got a boyfriend, of course the battle for him would be interesting to.

Makoto turned around, as well as Naru and Umino, and Ami looked over. Sure enough, there was Gohan who had just exited the building. He looked over, recognized a few faces, hesitated for a moment and then walked over.

"Hi, Bunny-san," Gohan greeted Usagi, and walked around the table, sitting down across from Umino, right next Ami, who seemed to be in heaven at the prospect. While Umino, and Naru giggled a little at Gohan's greeting of Usagi, she turned her head to the boy, narrowed her eyes, and gave a short, high-pitched grumble. Gohan was oblivious to the threat, and inclined his head at Umino, and greeted, "I am Son Gohan." Then he inclined his head at Naru.

Naru and Umino returned the gesture, and told him their names. "If you guys don't mind, I'm famished," Gohan told them as he pulled out his lunch box, his _/big/_ lunch box. Gohan licked his lips as he opened the box, and everyone looked inside, just a little astonished at the buns and fruits.

Except Usagi, she just looked with shiny eyes at the lunch. Not suitably impressed, she asked, "So, Gohan-san, may we call you Gohan-kun?"

"Oh, sure," Gohan answered absentmindedly deciding on where to start. Usagi noticed with a smile that both Ami and Makoto stiffened and then gave her a quick look. Then they looked back at Gohan starting to eat, and this time even Usagi was suitably impressed. The pile of food was being stuffed into Gohan's mouth, suitably chewed, and swallowed away like he was a vacuum cleaner.

"Whoa!" Umino exclaimed with large eyes. "You eat even faster than Usagi."

"Yet much cleaner," Ami added, as Gohan gave a shrug and continued scarfing away.

"Heeeeyy!" Usagi complained at the insult.

Ami looked over to her, and said, "Sorry, Usagi, but it's the truth."

Usagi folded her arms across her chest, hmpfed, and said, "That's not fair."

Ami returned to watching Gohan with fascination. He stopped only moments later, leaving only three buns and an apple in his box. "Aah," he said, tapping his tummy. "That hit the spot, I'll leave the rest for this afternoon."

"Wow, that was impressive," Makoto said, and looked up into Gohan's smiling face. Nothing stuck beneath his teeth, which was very impressive. She always thought she'd be turned off by any guy eating as fast as Usagi, now she knew it was eating as _/messy/_ as Usagi.

"What was really impressive was the way Gohan-kun handled Mr. Asahara, tell 'em," Ami said with a wide grin, and nudged Gohan, the girl getting a glare from Makoto.

"Handled?" Gohan asked a little perturbed. "I didn't really 'handle' him, I fell asleep, and when he woke up he told me I could go back to sleep if I knew the answer to the problem he was explaining on the board, or I could go to the hall." Gohan shook his head, eyebrows raised, and shoulder raised, in a 'what's the big deal?' gesture, and finished, "I gave him the answer." The group looked at him a little stunned.

"You should have seen his face, guys," Ami said, and did an exaggerated fake of the teacher's shocked and dumbfounded face. Gohan gave a shrug, and the group laughed and giggled.

Feeling uncomfortable with what Gohan thought as false merit, he quickly changed the focus, saying, "So, Umino, tell me something about yourself."

Gohan didn't notice his flub of missing the name suffix, and for a moment Umino wondered if Gohan was insulting him or considering him a good friend, which seemed rather quick. Gohan's smile made Umino decide to take it as the later, or at least just a mistake, and so he started to tell a little about himself.

Gohan had hoped to dodge the bullet about himself, but Makoto - still very interested - managed to get a 'What about you?' in, so Gohan was stuck answering the lie about his parents dying and he moving away from the rural country after selling the house. "My parents are dead to," Jupiter answered, a little too enthusiastically to Gohan's mind. "They died in a plane crash. How did yours die?"

Gohan blinked, he hadn't figured out that answer, the first thing that came to mind was the truth. "They died in an explosion," he answered, gaining sympathetic looks from the group. Gohan felt like cheat and a bastard, granted his father did die that way, but his mother and little brother were just fine. Of course, he couldn't exactly tell them the truth, now could he?

"You know," Makoto suggested with a smile. "We could get together soon, and exchange experiences?"

"Uh . . . I suppose," Gohan answered uncertainly.

"How about this afternoon?" Makoto asked sweetly, which earned her death glare from Ami. Normally Makoto wasn't very active toward boys.

Gohan blinked, remembering his get-together with Ami, and he answered, "Sorry, but I can't this afternoon."

"Tomorrow?" Makoto added, for some reason now that she had competition for a guy, her natural aggressive nature came out.

"Ok," Gohan said, cringing inside, wondering what he had gotten himself into. He then heard the bell ring, luckily, and he quickly got up, put his stuff back in his bag, and said, "Well, I'll see you later." And then he quickly left the table. "Bye, Bunny-chan."

Naru giggled, Umino chuckled, Ami and Makoto were glaring at each other, and Usagi glared after Gohan, thinking, *BUNNY-CHAN!?*


	3. Chapter 3: Gettogethers

_Chapter 3: Get-togethers_

"Hi, Gohan-kun!" Ami greeted the half-Saiyan boy enthusiastically.

"Hi, Ami-chan," Gohan greeted as he jogged over to her from his last class. He looked back at the school for a moment, and then joined the girl and grinned. "Lead the way," Gohan suggested to Ami, and she indeed did lead the way, smiling broadly at Gohan.

A few minutes later on their way to Ami's house. They were discussing some physics conundrum where Gohan had to be careful not to reveal his extra-dimensional knowledge. Ami liked the discussion, loved the intellectual challenge in fact, but she wanted to be closer to Gohan. Remembering something she saw Usagi do, she let herself drop back a bit when Gohan was making a point. Making sure to keep her attention, thinking deeply over Gohan's words in fact that was her cover for both dropping back and her next move. Suddenly Ami 'tripped', gave a quick squeal of shock, and managed to grab Gohan's arm just in time before she 'fell'. She righted herself and looked up into Gohan's concerned eyes. "Are you alright?" Gohan asked her.

"Yes, I'm fine, thanks to you," she answered holding on to his arm, and deciding to loosen her grip, not wanting to come off as too clingy.

"Good," Gohan said, picking up his pace again, Ami walking along continuing to holding his arm, and marveling at the feeling of the muscles there, "I know it's interesting, but do keep attention on where you're walking ok, Ami?" Ami nodded dutifully. "Don't want you falling onto the ground and hurting yourself," Gohan told her with a smile. "Where were we?"

"The possibility of cold fusion," Ami answered him. "I believe the exact nature of the forces inside atoms."

"Oh, yeah," Gohan answered, smiling, he loved talking to the girl. If there was one subject Gohan was good at, it was physics; traveling through space and dimension, and all the time working with Bulma made that a given. Gohan trailed off on another argument, while Ami interjected comments, her own arguments or the occasional question.

*****

"Well, question three is a piece of cake," Gohan commented from his position on the bed in Ami's room. He was lying on his stomach, crosswise on her bed, book and notebook in front of him, pen in hand.

"Yup," Ami answered him from her bed. She was sitting next to her pillow, leaning her back against the wall. Her legs were hunched up, and she was balancing her book and notebook on her legs just at her knees.

Gohan finished penning down the answer, as did Ami. He looked to the next question and started reading it. He finished halfway, sighed and then looked around at the girl, and asked, "Are you tired of this as well?"

"Uh . . . well . . ." Ami started.

"Let's do something for fun," Gohan suggested as he closed his books and sat up on the bed. "What do you have for fun around here?" Gohan asked, his eyes flicking over a few girl's toys and dismissing them instantly, his eyes settling on the tv in the far corner.

Ami thought it over for a moment, and realized that doing nothing _/but/_ studying when she had a friend over - a potential _/boy/_friend!! - she could be stowed on the pile marked 'boring', so she put her books away, and asked, "Sure, did you have something in mind, Gohan-kun?"

Gohan took a sharp intake of breath at what he had come to regard as the cursed 'kun'. He whipped his head around, regarded Ami for just a moment, and then said, "Just call me Gohan, Ami - can I call you Ami?" Ami's spirits soared, she didn't even know him a day, and already he wanted to drop the suffixes. 'Kun' meant 'friend', but also kept a little distance in between people, dropping suffixes meant a very close friend, perhaps even more - this had potential, lots of potential. Ami nodded eagerly, and then she heard Gohan add, "Back home we really never bothered with the suffixes. Every time someone adds 'kun' - or worse 'san' behind my name I feel like I'm some far away high official who is demanding you drop to your knees, or something."

*I feel like Vegeta,* Gohan silently added, as Ami's face fell just a little. She realized to Gohan dropping the suffix didn't have the same connotations as it did to her, but she quickly perked up. It was at least one thing, and it would also show everyone else she and Gohan were close, even though they might not be quite that.

"Do you think something good is on TV?" Gohan asked. It was a little bit bad, he came here and the only fun thing he could come up with was watch tv. The tv was standing on a mobile standard, and the standard had several more planks beneath. One of them had a video recorder on it, while the following seemed to have another black square box but it had a cloth covering it. "What's that?" Gohan asked and pointed at the cloth-covered box.

"Oh, go take off the cloth," Ami said, and Gohan did, revealing a shiny contraption which sported the name 'PlayStation 2'. There was no 'PlayStation' or a second one for that matter in Gohan's dimension, but the name was a good-enough hint. Gohan grinned when he realized what it was - wondering whether it was more advanced than any of the computer game consoles in his home dimension or vice versa - and Ami confirmed it, "It's a video game console, plays DVDs to. My dad bought it for my last birthday. He and mom are divorced . . ." Ami debated for just a moment explaining, and then decided. " . . . I'm not a video game player, see, but I want to be a doctor, I just haven't quite figured out yet what _/kind/_ of doctor. So when I looked surprised at the gift, dad said that if I decided to become a surgeon, I'd thank him for training my hand-eye coordination, especially since in the near future I might do it remotely via a tv screen, operating a robotic arm on the other side of the planet."

"Cool," Gohan said, his eyes shining and he looked around if he could find the games. 

Ami got up with a smile, relieved that she'd be able to have some fun with the guy. She went over to a closet and opened it. As she got out her games she told Gohan, "My dad brings along a new game regularly, and we usually play together. I think he bought it as much for himself as for me. I do love playing against him. Gives us something more to do together." Ami handed the pile of about eight games over to Gohan, and she said, "Choose one."

Gohan shifted through the pile and his eyes landed on a title, 'King of Fighters'. Gohan grinned and pulled them out. "You any good at this one?" Gohan asked with a smile.

Ami smiled, and said, "We'll see."

Gohan got creamed the first few times, as he still had to figure out the controls and what his fighters could do. He was quite intrigued when he saw the fighters firing ki attacks. He wondered if it was based on real life people doing that, or if it was fantasy. He made a mental note to find out. After about fifteen minutes, both he and she were about even playing the game, and they were having lots of fun, before switching to another game and having more fun.

*****

That night the five Sailor Soldiers got together at Rei's grandfather's Shinto shrine. Both cats were there as well. Rei - long black hair - was in her traditional shrine costume, a white, wide top and a long flowing red skirt. Minako, her long golden blonde hair flowed to below her shoulders, sat on a chair. Makoto, and Ami were sitting as well, while Usagi was grinning like a Cheshire cat, looking from Ami to Makoto who were becoming annoyed by Uasagi's behavior.

"We've got three main problems," Artemis, the white cat began speaking. "The first is who is the Knight of the Moonlight, and can he be trusted, or is he playing us?"

The Knight of the Moonlight, a guy in long, flowing white robes, wearing somewhat of a turban as well, had popped up recently. Like another hero, Tuxedo Kamen, who sadly wasn't around anymore due to an unfortunate event of memory loss, he used roses as an offensive attack. White roses, specifically, he threw them just so that the thorns would cut along an enemy's skin, and usually came just in time to save the Soldiers, and more had some wisdom to sprout. Once more, not unlike the afore mentioned Tuxedo Kamen - although he used red roses.

Usagi swooned at the mention of the dashing hero and mumbled, "The Knight of the Moonlight, he couldn't possibly be a bad guy, he's far too handsome."

"How do you know? All we've seen of him is robes and eyes!" Rei bit at the blonde with odangos in irritation. "For all you know he could be hiding his face, because he's ugly."

"No way! Someone that heroic can't be ugly!!" Usagi bit back at the black-haired priestess in training. The group looked strangely at her, and as Usagi thought over what she said, she added, "You know! Even if he's unappealing on the outside, he can't be ugly! Inside is what matters."

The group nodded, giving her that, and Usagi wiped away a little sweat glad she managed at least to talk her way out of that embarrassing statement. "Anyway, we still don't know who he is," Ami continued with the meeting.

"I think it's Mamoru," Usagi stated with some pride.

"How do you know it can't be Gohan?" Ami bit back at the blonde, kind of niffed it had to automatically be Miss Eats a Lot's boyfriend, and she said so, "It just _/has/_ to be _/your/_ boyfriend that's the cool new super hero. Gohan and the knight did arrive at around the same time."

"Yeah," Makoto added in. "Besides, Mamoru is Tuxedo Kamen, why would he suddenly change his hero's persona?"

"Gohan's too _/short/_ to be the knight," Usagi returned snidely, attacking not just Gohan with that statement. "I thought _/you/_ of all people would notice that. You look down upon the one, and look up to the other!" Usagi looked with satisfaction at her friend's hurt face, which slowly grew darker. "As for why, quite simple, Mamoru lost his memory, he doesn't remember who he was, but his true hero nature couldn't be broken by the spell!" Usagi added triumphantly.

Jupiter suddenly got angry at the petite blonde, her rage slowly growing. Ami too didn't like the implied insult to Gohan, especially since the one making it was even shorter. "Stop it!" Rei called out sharply, and the three of them looked up at her. "We're still in a holy shrine! So you two shut up and keep your hormones in check, and you," Rei pointed at Usagi. "You stop acting like a childish girl - my boyfriend's better than yours. Ugh!" Usagi looked shocked at the accusation at first, some hurt filtering in her eyes, then she quickly grew angry.

"You!" she hissed, falling in the familiar pattern of arguing and fighting with the dark-haired girl.

"_/I/ /suggest/_," Minako said sharply, bringing everyone's attention to the blonde, "we treat the Knight as an ally, but keep our guard up just in case."

"Debating his identity will get us nowhere," Luna, the dark grey cat, piped up. "I agree with Minako." The group calmed down some, and then the dark cat added, "Our second problem is finding out where those demons from cards come from, why they are here, and why they need energy." The group didn't have any answers, so suitably chastised earlier, none of them spoke. "Ok, then, everyone keep their eyes open for any clues about this," Luna continued, looking around the group of girls from her position. "Which leads us to our final problem, one which I tried to address with Usagi earlier, but she thought other things were more important." Usagi blinked, looking guilty, innocent, and clueless all at the same time. Luna told them, "Remember your headache two nights ago, Rei?"

Reit looked up, thought, and then nodded. Artemis continued where Luna had halted, "At the same time, one of Ami's sensors went off. It registered a strange energy that I haven't seen before. I've been doing some research, and I'm pretty sure it's extra-dimensional."

"What does that mean, extra-di- extra . . . ?" Usagi tried.

"Extra-dimensional," Ami started clarifying calmly, and remembered she and Gohan had a discussion about it among other physics concepts just recently. She dismissed it as a coincidence, and talked onward, "Outside of this dimension, not of this universe. It would mean that the fabric of space and time has been ruptured; could be a wormhole, perhaps a natural one. If the scientific community has detected it, there should be a lot of articles about it soon, and . . ."

"Ahem!" Makoto interrupted, a little irritated. "Thanks for the clarification, but I'm not interested in the dissertation."

The others nodded in agreement, and Ami shut up. "Any other ideas?" Artemis asked around to the group. When no answer came, he added, "Any other information? Announcements? Well, then we should all be on our guard. The amount of problems seem to be mounting; we need to be as vigilant as we can."

*****

The next day Gohan sat down at lunch hour with the rest of them. Somewhat nervous about Makoto, and what they were going to be talking about in the afternoon, hoping she wouldn't start it earlier: namely at lunch. "Hello, Gohan-kun," Naru greeted him first. Umino followed with the same greet, and Ami greeted him as just Gohan, earning her a surprised look from Umino and Naru, and a dark glare from Makoto.

Gohan groaned, and as he sat down on the bench, he said, "Guys, please. Leave the 'kun', will ya? Just Gohan. I hope I can do the same to you."

"Oh, sure, absolutely Gohan," Makoto replied with a grin, and giving Ami a look that said, 'So, there.' As Gohan sat down, Makoto produced a second lunch box, and said, "Gohan, I made you lunch today, I just _/love/_ to cook."

Ami's gaze narrowed at Makoto and thought, *Why you . . . !? Using that is really low!*

"That really, _/really/_ wasn't necessary," Gohan said, feeling bad about himself and thinking, *_/Really/_ not, my mother is still very much alive, I don't need all this.* He added, "I have my own lunch as well, you know."

"It was no bother, I was making lunch for myself anyway, and I thought, I might as well," Makoto added, missing Naru's and Umino's incredulous stares. The both of them didn't know Ami and Makoto as well as Usagi, but they did know this really wasn't 'no bother'.

Gohan was in a bind. He could show Makoto that it really wasn't necessary by not eating a bit from the offered lunch, but that could upset her. It certainly wasn't polite, and his mother taught him to always be polite. "Thank you," Gohan said and took the lunch box. He opened it and looked at the delicious food. Some of it was baked, still warm, and the smells made Gohan's mouth water. He gingerly took an article of food and brought it to his mouth, keenly aware of the four pairs of eyes looking expectantly at him. He took a bite and started chewing, slowly, nervously. His eyes widened instantly, and he couldn't keep himself from blurting out a 'mmh.' He chewed faster and swallowed his bit. Then he looked over at Makoto, with wide eyes, and said, "This is delicious." Makoto beamed with pride, Ami's glare deepened, Naru became more nervous, and Umino looked with jealousy at Gohan and the delicious-smelling and looking lunch inside the box.

Gohan hated himself. How could he have said it was delicious? Dig himself deeper in his hole. What if Makoto was going to make him lunch all the time? Him mooching off of Makoto and the others on account of a necessary lie was just wrong. Gohan looked around, as he took another bite from the delicious sandwich, he found Usagi walking toward them, a guy hovering around her, talking to her; with quite some interest, Gohan noted. There was a girl close behind them, one who scowled at the scene. Gohan's gaze locked on the guy, his sense of ki homing in on him. Gohan chewed slower, his gaze drilling into the guy, knowing instantly they were not human. Not a problem of course, he was only part human, he was going to school here, and he was from another dimension, so Gohan couldn't exactly scream bloody murder and beat them to a pulp. The guy was apparently noticing Gohan's gaze, because in the middle of a sentence he suddenly stiffened and then turned around looking at Gohan. Their gazes locked, and then suddenly the guy excused himself and joined the female of his species.

The others had noticed Gohan's strange gaze, and had looked intrigued at it. Finally Umino asked, "What was that about?"

"Uh, nothing, why?" Gohan asked and Usagi's stomach making loud rumbling noises saved him for now.

The blonde sat down and looked over the table, and drooled. "I forgot my lunch," Usagi whimpered weakly. "Mako-chan, would you lend me some?"

Saved! Gohan could get rid of the second lunch without hurting Makoto's feelings. "Here," Gohan said with a smile handing the box over to Usagi. The girl looked at the fantastic smelling lunch, and everyone looked astounded. "Makoto made it for me, but I couldn't possibly have the audacity to eat two lunches while you have nothing."

Usagi's mouth watered at the sight, and then dug in with abandon, mumbling a deep 'thank you'. Gohan gave Makoto a smile that told her he had no other choice. Mokoto perked up, understanding, not angry that Gohan wasn't eating her lunch.

*****

That afternoon Gohan left the school building and arrived at the main entrance where he had agreed to meet Makoto so they could go to her place and 'talk' about 'the loss of their parents'. To say that Gohan was nervous was an understatement. To say that Gohan felt like a prick for making everyone believe he was an orphan just so - even more so now that he was actually going to talk with a 'fellow orphan' about it - was more accurate. But how else could he have explained, he was all alone here in this dimension?

He noticed Usagi, and Ami were with the brunette, and so were two other girls: a raven-haired one, and another blonde. Gohan approached them, and he greeted, "Hi, Makoto. Bunny. Ami."

Rei and Minako - the two new girls - raised their eyebrows, and looked slightly amused at the steamed Usagi, who was clenching and unclenching her fists. "Hi, Gohan," Makoto greeted back, oblivious to Usagi's mounting anger.

"Hi, Gohan," Ami greeted as well, and turned to Rei. "Let me introduce you to two friends of ours. This is Hino Rei."

Rei give a quick wave, and a short greet. Gohan returned the greet. "And this," Makoto took over, gesturing to Minako, "is Aino Minako."

"Hello," the stunning blonde greeted, and Gohan greeted back, giving her and Rei a quick once-over.

"Shall we go then, Gohan?" Makoto asked with a smile.

Gohan gulped, and nodded, and then the two of them walked away from the other girls after a greet.

*****

"Aarghh!" Usagi groaned out, as she and the remaining three Sailor Soldiers walked together toward Rei's temple. "I can't believe it! Why does he keep calling me Bunny? It sounds like I'm a little stupid kid! Not to mention sounds just plain horrible."

Minako and Rei kept their mouths shut, but gave each other a sour look. Ami though, said, "I think it sounds cute."

Usagi abruptly stopped walking and turned around. Looking angrily at Ami, she said, "It's _/not/_ cute, and _/you/_ think everything is cute that comes from Gohan!"

"I do not," Ami answered her a little wigged.

"Do too!" Usagi accused angrily.

Minako decided to cut in before this went no where, "Calm down, you don't seem to hate the guy."

Usagi sniffed, and said, "How can I? He's made friends with my friends, and apart from the name that shall not be named again, he's quite decent."

"He's a lot more than decent," Ami said softly, remembering all Gohan's mental feats in class these past few days, and the homework making too.

Usagi groaned, then sniffed, and wailed, "See! It's not fair! Finally some romance, and all I can think about is The Name!" Rei shook her head and quickly walked on, trying to calm her rising anger.

*****

Gohan felt like a sick bastard manipulating a defenseless girl's emotions with lies as he told the completely fabricated story of his father's and mother's death. So he decided to shorten it, by saying, " . . . and I really don't like talking about it much." Makoto, having told her story about the plane crash with their parents on it earlier on, agreed quickly. Of course Gohan's rumbling stomach at smelling the delicious food helped. More so, Makoto having to go to the kitchen to check up on it. Gohan couldn't resist and followed her in.

*The way to a man's heart, is through his stomach,* Makoto thought with a smile at Gohan checking out the food. "I decided on doing something new and unusual today; real Italian spaghetti bolognese." Makoto smiled as she turned to look at Gohan, and asked, "The question is, will you be staying for dinner, or not?"

"Oh, yes," Gohan answered without thinking, practically drooling.

Makoto grinned in triumph as she let the spaghetti fall into a sieve, and the cooking water fell right through into the sink. "Perhaps we could do something else together," Makoto suggested sweetly. "Something to pass the time, have you ever done laser quest? There's this new virtual reality theater, a big fancy name for laser quest if you ask me."

Gohan perked up, if he figured right they had the same thing in his dimension only named a little different. "Yeah, Mako, that'd be great!" Gohan answered, never having played the game. He lived in the rural country back home after all, nowhere near the city where they had it. Makoto perked up, smiling, thinking she was about to go out on a date. "We'll make a whole day of it. Then of all of us we can see who's the best sharp shooter. Have you asked the others already, or should I do it?" Mako's eyes widened, and then she got disappointed but quickly hid it.

"No, I'll ask," Makoto answered him, smiling.


	4. Chapter 4: Revelation

_Chapter 4: Revelation_

Saturday morning the whole group was standing in the long line of people wanting to get into the new virtual reality theater. Right down and including Naru and Umino. They were finally almost to the entrance of the place, and Usagi said with a scowl, "This is so barbaric, I can't believe _/you/_ would go here." She was addressing Naru and Ami and only half the other girls, but they all just shrugged, while Naru slung an arm around Umino's waist.

Gohan spoke up with a grin, "This is gonna be so cool. What do you guys say about girls against the boys?"

"Whaaat!?" Usagi exclaimed in disbelief, before adding. "We outnumber you three to one!"

"You're right, Bunny, that really isn't fair," Gohan answered with a mock frown, and then with a smile added, "four to one would be much better odds, right, Umino?"

"Uh," the other boy looked around nervously, seeing the half shock, half glares looks of the girls, except Usagi's whose full on death glare was centered on the oblivious Gohan. Then the other boy settled on the grinning Gohan, and deciding to stick with his only male friend, he dryly remarked, unable to keep the smile of his face, as Gohan's was contagious, "Yeah, although I think five to one would start giving them a chance." Gohan gave nod, smiling brightly. The girls look with shock at the normally shy and quiet Umino, then with some dark glares at the 'chauvinistic pig'. Naru grinned, she knew when Umino was kidding by now, and elbowed him playfully in the gut. "Oof," he said, and felt his stomach, looking at his girlfriend. She smiled back at him sweetly and gave him a wink.

Finally the group of eight got into the virtual reality theater, and got fitted with their armors and guns. They were set into a roller coaster like car and they sped into the depths of the theater, along the way, monsters of pure light emerged and roared. Gohan shot one and it disappeared. The others soon joined, except Usagi, who was still fiddling with her gun trying to figure out how to work it.

After a hair-raising two minutes, the car came to a sudden stop, and opened. The group got out and looked around the new vista, a giant maze. In the distance another person could be seen shooting a roaring monster, which disappeared after several hits. The helmets they wore had a plastic protective covering over their eyes, which also carried a heads up display. A 'today's high score list' appeared; first just for the entrance way.

"All right!" Gohan exclaimed excitedly, as he saw himself on number one. A Chiba Mamoru was second, and Ginga Seijuurou third, then came Umino and Ami.

"Mamoru's here!?" Usagi squealed out in surprise and elation. She turned to the group and looked at them with begging eyes. Gohan didn't know what was going on, but then the group sighed. Usagi squealed again, and sped off, looking for her potential boyfriend with memory loss.

"Wow, Umino, you're good," Rei said with some surprise at his fourth ranking, Minako nodded in agreement. The high score list turned to an overall score, and obviously none of them were anywhere near the top, since they of course still hadn't shot a monster while on foot.

"Ah, it's nothing, men have better hand-eye coordination, forty thousand years of flinging spears at prey paid off," Umino shyly dismissed his ranking.

"Having his own game console in his very own room, which he plays on every day helps to," Naru told everyone with a little pride.

"All right then," Gohan said, as he gave Ami a congratulatory glance, and looked around the others. "If we want to be in the same positions overall as well, it's time we get going, and get shooting." Then they set off into the virtual reality game.

*****

"Mamoru!" Usagi exclaimed with joy as she found the man she was in love with.

Mamoru slowly turned around, regarded her, and said, "Oh, hey, stupid." As he turned around, so did the person next to him, which revealed Natsumi, one of Usagi's classmates. Both the girls' eyes narrowed at each other.

"Usagi," a second male voice sounded, and from a side corridor Seijuurou, another classmate arrived. "I knew it was you." Natsumi's eyes became darker. Then Seijuurou's gaze settled on Mamoru and he too instantly gave a jealous gaze. Mamoru apparently was the only one who didn't care, and was seemingly oblivious to the tense atmosphere.

Just then a virtual monster jumped up, and Mamoru instantly shot it with his VR gun. The talking was over almost immediately as a few more monsters arrived at the stationary targets, ready to be taken out like the sitting ducks they were. Seijuurou took out a second with ease, taunting Mamoru to see who was best. The two young men started firing not so much to get the monsters, but to see which of them was better. Usagi aimed her gun at another monster, fired, and missed. Usagi blinked in surprise and fired again, once again missing the monster. Natsumi laughed hatefully as she blew away the monster with her VR gun. "You are so stupid, can't even hit a monster once," Natsumi told.

Usagi sniffed, and said, "It's barbaric, I don't like barbaric games."

"Usagi," a familiar voice called out in surprise, and she turned around, seeing her father and her brother standing there. "I didn't know you were here, if you wanted to go you could have come with us." Usagi gulped, really not wanting her father and brother there with her potential - five years older - boyfriend.

"I'm the best," Seijuurou stated with a snarl off to the side.

"No, _/I/_ am," Mamoru returned as he pushed the button on his VR helmet to show him the rankings. Seijuurou did the same, and both of them looked stunned at the rankings. Number 1: Son Gohan. Number 2: Gurio Umino. Number 3: Aino Minako. Mamoru and Seijuurou only came after that.

"Come on, Usagi," her father said with a smile. "We can have some father, son, _/and/_ daughter quality time, your friends can come along."

Usagi went with her father, as he and her brother Shingo shot down another monster. Mamoru followed them with a slight smile. Seijuurou and Natsumi however, quickly snuck away.

*****

Seijuurou and Natsumi arrived in a separate corridor, making sure they were alone, they transformed. Their human skin turned to pale green, their hair white, and their clothes transformed into skintight futuristic looking suits. They two looked at each other, and smiled evilly. Ann told Ail, as their real names were, "This is place is perfect to release a Cardian, and drain energy."

Ail nodded, and pulled out a few cards. "Choose my beloved." Ann grinned and pulled one of the cards. "Good choice." Ann grinned and threw the card to the floor. A whirlwind of energy exploded from the card, and a moment later the monster that had been depicted on the card stood real, and ready to kill.

"Go, find us energy," Ann whispered, and the monster bounded off.

*****

Gohan and Umino were at point of the group, and they were enjoying themselves. Virtual monster after virtual monster was shot down. Gohan's Saiyan reflexes and Umino's practice made them the superior marksmen. To Makoto's surprise and annoyance, Ami surprised her by being better. Her time with her Playstation 2, had helped in that regard. Minako however was better then both of them. She simply had more experience, she'd been fighting as a sailor soldier the longest of all of them.

Surprisingly Rei didn't do as well, and Naru couldn't really keep up. She was proud of Umino's performance though, it was visible on her face. When the group had shot their way through a particular hazardous piece of the dark arena, Gohan went to give Umino a high five. The boy was surprised but managed to get his hand up in time for their hands to slap, and Gohan to exclaim, "All right! We're the best. Just check out the score." Unlike Mamoru and Seijuurou who were competing against each other, Gohan and Umino, and girls had been working with each other; guarding each other's backs, and occasionally shooting in a crossfire, giving them a superior score.

"Congratulations," Naru told them all with a big smile, her eyes sparkling when hers met Umino's.

Suddenly Gohan's and Rei's head whipped about, and looked in the same direction. Unknown to any of them, a small device in the pocket of Ami's pants vibrated a warning. Then the screaming started.

*****

The monster just attacked a group of people, who screamed out in horror when it didn't go down after fired upon. Shingo, a littler further away screamed out in joy at the tougher opponent, saying, "It's so real!"

"Perhaps a little too real?" his father wondered, the momentary hesitation allowing Shingo to charge the monster. Mamoru and Usagi looked shocked for a moment as the little guy charged the demon. Then his father went into action, following his son, so he could rescue him, telling the other kids to stay back. Usagi looked around, trying to find a way to sneak out so she could transform into her demon fighting alter ego.

Shingo got snatched up by one of the demon's tentacles. "Stay here, I'm helping your father," Mamoru said with authority, and ran off. For a moment Usagi admired Mamoru and her father as they avoided the monster's tentacles to get to her brother, then she quickly went behind a corner, and pulled out a pen with a crown on top. She lifted it in the air, and said, "Moon Prism Power Make Up!" A cone of light encircled her, and she transformed. Her clothes disappeared and were replaced with her Sailor Moon micro skirt soldier's outfit. Jewels appeared in the knots of her odangos, and then she was ready, ready to fight the monster.

Sailor Moon returned to the site of the battle and taunted the demon, "You hurt some people very important to me! I will not forgive you even if you apologize! Now I will punish you!" Mamoru looked incredulously at Sailor Moon's yammering, while he was using the gun as a shield and club against the monster. Shingo was still in the monster's grasp, and Sailor Moon took her tiara from her fore head. Making a pirouette to give the tiara speed, she called out, "Moon tiara action!" The tiara started to glow and then she threw it. Halfway the demon the tiara stopped glowing, and just bounced off the monster's skin.

The monster roared as Mamoru said angrily, "I don't know who you are, but if you're going to fight, do it seriously!"

The demon then went to attack Usagi and she took a step back in fear. Then a white rose flew from nowhere, one of its thorns scratched the tentacle that was holding Shingo and the demon let the half drained boy go. His father caught him, and quickly carried him to safety, as Mamoru turned around to look at the Knight of the Moonlight in his Arabic white robe get up. "Oh, great, another freak," Mamoru said to himself in irritation. Usagi looked happily and swooning for a moment, before noticing that Mamoru and the Knight were quite obviously two very different individuals.

*****

Gohan, and the rest were heading toward the screams, they had already met a few people fleeing in the opposite direction. Just now he had felt a different, distinctly magical spike of energy, and the arrival of a very odd person with odd ki, but everything was too hectic, and magic energy too unfamiliar to Gohan to really connect it to anything. The only thing he could be certain of, was that the energy came nowhere in the vicinity of his own, and that he could no longer sense Usagi. Which was bad, Gohan hoped it was just the unfamiliar universe, and the unfamiliar energies disrupting his ability to sense her, because if it wasn't . . . Gohan was afraid for his friends' lives, and annoyed at his inability to help; he couldn't, this wasn't his world, it was not his place to interfere, but he was still forced to move toward the screams. A wall in front of them shredded, revealing the monster and several men, one of which was dressed in Arabic robes, confronting it. There was a blonde girl, but that was all Gohan could see, before his group had to dive aside for cover as a small, and to Gohan weak energy ball streaked by.

Gohan found himself and Makoto on one side of the hole, and the rest of their group on the opposite. He took a quick peak, and noticed the men keeping themselves from getting killed, and managed to get a few hits in, but not really making a dent in the thing. He looked across to Ami taking a peek of her own, and then their eyes met, as they pulled back to avoid another ball of energy. Ami gave a nod, and then turned around, ushering the others away, and then Gohan turned around himself and quickly pulled Makoto along by her elbow. He quickly navigated the maze, chewing his bottom lip in frustration, when Makoto asked a little surprised at the strength in his grip, "Where are we going?"

"Out," Gohan said curtly.

"I can't believe it," Makoto stated shocked as they rounded a corner. "You're not going to help? Are you a coward?" Makoto wanted to kick herself in the head for saying that. What was she thinking? But she wanted so bad to help, and with Gohan around she couldn't, and it frustrated her.

"No!" Gohan said forcibly, hating it. "You're my responsibility, I have to get you to safety first, then I can go back."

Makoto yanked herself free, a little angry, saying, "You've seen me fight. I can handle myself, I can help. I'm not some weak little girl that needs protecting!"

Gohan hesitated, thinking it over; on the one hand he didn't want to hurt Makoto's feelings, on the other he couldn't help even if he wanted to, which he did. "Alright fine," Gohan relented, turning around and walking back, Makoto walking along side him. "But if you get killed, I'll bring you back from the next dimension just so I can do it myself," Gohan added sternly, half serious. Gohan could kick himself, *You damn fool! What are you going to do!? With her by your side it'll make it even more impossible to help!! You can't reveal your secret!*

Makoto next to him was thinking remarkably similar thoughts, *STUPID!! STUPID!! STUPID!! What were you thinking, Mako-chan!!? If you had let him guide you out, you could have transformed! Now you won't be half as effective!! Me and my damn feminist pride! I should really learn to say, 'Yes, sweet chicks! Of course my man!' on occasion. Most definitely sweet cheeks.* That thought came as she looked down fleetingly noticing Gohan's backside. *FOCUS, MAKOTO, FOCUS!! Fighting demon, saving lives, fighting demon, saving lives!!*

The two of them arrived back at the battle site moments later, and they went to check out the battle from behind a corner. Both thinking hard about how to fight this thing, without the other finding out about their secrets, and in Gohan's case added to that without screwing up this world's own defensive capabilities, and unrightfully interfering.

They saw the Knight of the Moonlight uselessly attacking the Cardian, and Sailor Moon, her face turned away from them scrambling to avoid the demon. "Shabon Spray!" a voice called, and a blue-haired sailor soldier jumped into the room, - Sailor Mercury a.k.a. Mizuno Ami - firing bubbles at the Cardian which tried to get away from them. Since the girls were turned away from Gohan, and their magic transformation played havoc with their ki signature, he couldn't recognize them.

Next up was Sailor Venus, a.k.a. Aino Minako, in an orange micro skirt, jumping in and firing a crescent moon shaped beam, after yelling, "Crescent Beam!" The impact did quite some damage, and the demon staggered back under the onslaught.

"My tiara won't work any more!" wailed out Sailor Moon, and Venus picked up the tiara where it had fallen, now that the monster was no longer standing over it.

Venus handed the tiara back over, saying, "Don't worry Sailor Moon, your friends are here to help out."

The monster roared again, and Sailor Mars, a red skirted, black-haired girl - you guessed it - one Hino Rei, yelled, "Fire Soul!" A small orb of devastating fire left her hands, impacted on the demon, and it got burned to a crisp. It caught fire and the fire whipped through the monster's body, destroying it. The only thing remaining was a card, that just dropped to the floor and lay there. The danger was averted.

Gohan blinked, so did Makoto. Although to Gohan it had gone achingly slow, it had gone fast enough neither had the time to come up with a solution to their dilemma's, and so Gohan said still hoping it was the magic that was disrupting his senses was the reason he couldn't feel his friends - except Umino and Naru who he sensed outside - anymore, "Well, I guess we're not needed anymore. Let's go find the others."

"Good idea," Makoto said, and the two of them walked off in search for their friends.

*****

Gohan sat in his apartment doing nothing but pondering the day's events. First there were the two disguised beings from another planet. They had been in the theater. Coincidence with the monster attacking seemed just a bit _/too/_ convenient. On the other hand, the monster felt absolutely nothing like them, so created magically by a card or not, could it possibly be related? After all he was an alien, sort of, and he was also present when the monster attacked.

Then there were the Sailor Soldiers, and how their magic disrupted his ability to feel his friends, when they were close by the magical warriors. He and Makoto had found them quickly enough, but that simply would not do. He had to find a way to let his senses break through magic, and preferably quickly.

Gohan was startled from his revery when his communicator beeped. He got up from his chair and picked the device of his desk. He opened it, and looked in the dread-filled face of Bulma. "Your mother demands to speak with you," the green-haired woman said, and then her face disappeared from view, and it its place was an angry and concerned Chichi.

"Hi, mom," Gohan greeted her mother, and then winced at Chichi's tone of voice.

"Did you brush your teeth? Did you eat well? Saiyans need to eat a lot," she said, her voice a mixture of anger, frustration, and concern.

"Yes, mom. We've talked only two days ago, what do you think changed?" Gohan asked her innocently, wondering if someone in whatever dimension had found a recipe yet on how to do deal with overprotective, overbearing mothers.

"Don't give me lip, young man, I'm still your mother. You better make sure you do your homework!" Chichi told him.

"Yes, mom," Gohan answered, knowing it was best not to bring up the fact that this dimension was a little behind in the sciences department. Perhaps he should do extra on the side in that department?

"Well, good, you made any friends yet?" Chichi asked interested.

"Actually, yes, a few," Gohan replied again.

"They aren't the wrong kind, are they, Gohan?" Chichi practically interrogated the poor boy.

"No," Gohan answered thinking back at Makoto's insistence to fight the demon, and the bravery of what he later found out was Usagi's father, "they are practically heroes, mom."

"Well, good," Chichi stated resolutely, and then fell silent wondering what more she could ask. "Well . . . ok . . . by then . . . stay safe."

"Always, mom," Gohan answered her with a smile before she disappeared from the small screen, and was once again replaced by Bulma's (relieved) face.

Bulma looked to the right - Gohan guessed making sure his mother was out of earshot - sighed, and said, "That went better than expected. Shall we try some repair work?"

*****

"So Mamoru isn't the Knight of the Moonlight, huh?" Ami asked gently sitting down next to Usagi on the steps leading to Rei's grandfather's temple.

"No, I don't get it, I was so sure it was him," Usagi answered the fellow Soldier she knew the longest.

Ami nodded, and answered, "Well, it isn't Gohan either, so . . ."

Usagi smiled at Ami, and the blue-haired girl smiled back. "How _/is/_ the Gohan front anyway?"

"Can't really complain, it isn't going as fast as I would like," Ami started looking up at the stars dreamily. "And Mako is being all silly over this, like she could offer anything to someone that intelligent . . . anyway, I don't think Gohan has ever had a girlfriend before, he's quite dense when it comes to girls. Of course, I haven't had a boyfriend before."

Usagi shrugged, "He is almost a year younger then us, I believe. And before Mamoru I didn't have a boyfriend either." Usagi sighed deeply as she was reminded of the guy she was in love with, but couldn't remember what they had had. "Why did I have to make that stupid wish with the crystal? It's not fair," she whined at nobody in particular.

"I'm going to have to put more effort into it," Ami said resolutely.

*****

Next Monday morning Gohan casually walked to school. He was thinking over what he had found on ki fighting. Apparently there were ki users, which incidently was either spelled in 'standard' spelling as ch'i or q'i, but still pronounced ki. The former spelling led to the Western world on this planet to pronounce it 'chi', again like Littica had on occasion called it, when he slipped in the different pronunciations. It seemed this universe was very close to Littica's home dimension, although the whole super charged universe, can barely blow away a city, let alone the whole planet, didn't apply. To Gohan, he could destroy this planet with the same ease as his home world. He shivered, as once again he feared just how much power he really had.

The use of ki on this planet was very limited though: a few could expel some energy, make a few trees quiver, generate a nice wind, some fog, and even a short explosive burst of air, but that was pretty much it. Which was good for Gohan, it meant he could use some of his ki abilities in the upcoming tournament. He grinned; he could even use a little more without rousing suspicion. That tournament really wasn't fair, he would win just by showing up. He decided then that that was not the way to think. 'Don't ever underestimate your opponents,' he remembered Littica's lesson. He wouldn't be fighting in that tournament as a Super Saiyan, his energy would be low enough his opponents could hit him if they were good enough.

"GOHAN! Wait up!" Makoto's voice alerted him.

Gohan jerked from his reverie and saw the brunette with the pony tail quickly catching up to him. When she reached him, he said, "Oh, hey, Mako."

The girl stepped next to him, and the two of them started walking next to each other. "So what do you have first period?" Makoto asked the boy from another dimension.

"Math," Gohan sighed with dread. "I'm going to be asleep before the first quarter is over, I just know it. The guy is as boring as someone could possibly me."

Makoto chuckled, stumbled, and grabbed Gohan's arm. Suddenly Gohan stood still, and looked up at the brunette's face. "Why did you do that?" he asked her suspiciously.

"Did what?" Makoto asked innocently, but with a fearful face.

"Stumble and grab my arm," Gohan accused her, remembering Ami do it twice before, but hadn't really noticed it, he had been too wrapped up in their discussions. But this was Makoto he was talking to, and he added, "I've seen you fight, someone that coordinated and agile doesn't just 'stumble'."

"I . . . well . . ." Makoto started, almost ready to cry, suspecting she had blown it, "I just wanted to hold your arm."

"You're a weird girl, one day you don't want to be left out of fighting, next day you want to cling to my arm. You could have just held it, or better yet, asked if you can," Gohan told her a little upset, as he went over Ami's and Makoto's behavior toward him.

"Guys don't really like it," Makoto answered nervously.

Gohan turned around and continued walking, muttering upset as he saw a disturbing pattern emerge, "Perhaps there is a reason for that."

"Hey, wait up," Makoto said going after the boy.

*****

Gohan ate his lunch quickly sitting amongst his friends. He was kind of uncomfortable whenever he saw Ami or Makoto smile at him. If there was one thing he was not interested in, it was some form of romantic relationship. He may be thirteen years old, but he wasn't completely stupid. He was for too young in his opinion for something like that, and he certainly wasn't going to be part of some make believe 'going steady' like ten year olds. Besides, he felt absolutely _/no/_ attraction to either of the two girls.

Finished with his lunch, after politely declining Makoto's home made lunch, he got up and started to leave. "Hey, Gohan," Ami started.

"Sorry, Ami," Gohan apologized as he backed away from the lunch table. "I'm late."

"Late? What for?" Ami wondered softly, but Gohan had already left.

"Girls," Gohan muttered under his breath as he walked through the hallway of the school, "I don't understand them. Lime and Angeline back home are bad enough, and they don't want to be anything but friends." Gohan sighed, wondering how he had gotten himself in this mess, and wondering why the two couldn't just be that: friends.

Later that day, at the end of classes, Gohan arrived at the entrance to the school grounds. The whole group, including Umino and Naru - who stood close to Usagi - as well as a just arrived Rei and Minako were present. Gohan opted to go to toward Usagi and her two friends, and turned around to look at the group. Makoto and Ami, both with sparkling eyes took a step forward and both asked, "Gohan would you like . . ." The two whipped their heads around and looked angrily at each other.

"Oh, sorry, guys," Gohan said with a bright smile, and slung his arms around the shoulders of Umino and Naru who were on either side of him. Usagi looked with wide eyes at her friends going with Gohan. He continued, "But Umino and Naru and I have plans. See you all tomorrow." Before the two could say anything, Gohan had turned around, swinging his two friends along with them, and then walked forward. The two of them were too surprised by this point to say anything. Once they rounded a corner and Gohan was certain his two friends who wanted more were no longer in hearing distance, he sighed in relief, removing his arms from their shoulders, and said, "Thanks so much for not saying anything, you guys. If you want to lose me, I understand completely, but Mako and Ami . . . well, they want something they can't have."

Umino looked confused, but Naru asked observing Gohan, "You don't like them?"

"Sure, I like them, as friends, and no more," Gohan replied with another sigh. "So, you guys want to be alone, or are we going to do something together."

"Well, we were just going shopping for Umino's mother. Her birthday is tomorrow," Naru answered Gohan with a smile. "He wanted a girl's advice on what to get her."

"Yeah," Umino added with a big smile. "You can come along, we could see if we can get into a movie afterwards."

"Great, let's go have some fun," Gohan told them with a smile, and the three teens were off.

*****

"What about perfume?" Gohan asked as he looked around the department store. They had pretty much everything, and Gohan had looked with wide eyes when they first went inside. He had never seen anything like it before. "That always works for women, right?"

"And it also says, 'I had no idea what to give you,'" Naru replied looking over the cabinet with little statuettes.

Gohan shrugged, and looked around. "Uh, Naru?" Umino prompted after seeing the prices on the statuettes. "I don't have that much money."

"Oh," Naru said, pondering that information, "so how much _/do/_ you have to spend?"

"Well," Umino said, and opened his wallet, showing what he had. Naru looked around, and suddenly her eyes widened.

"Ooh!" she said, and dragged the two boys along. A moment later they arrived in front of a cabinet showing purses, and pointed at what was apparently a particularly stylish one. Umino checked the price and realized it was on discount, and well in his price range. His face lid up, and in the spur of the moment he grabbed Naru and planted a kiss on her cheek. Or intended to, Naru turned her smiling head to him at right that moment and his kiss landed square on her lips. Gohan chuckled, and his friends blushed deeply. Umino took the purse, still blushing, and the trio went to the cash register.

A few moments later the trio stood back outside, smiling satisfied smiles, as Umino held the wrapped up purse in front of him. "Gohan, Naru," Umino started looking at the other two, and when the two looked at him, he continued, "I got to keep it a surprise, you two have to help me distract mom so I can get the purse to my room without her noticing!"

So said, so done. A short time later the trio had arrived at Umino's home where they had made a good excuse for a temporary return, and while Gohan and Naru stood in front of the stairs, striking up a conversation with Umino's mother, Umino himself quickly went upstairs hiding his gift.

A short while later the three of them were back out on the street, debating what they would do next.


	5. Chapter 5: To Fight? Or Not to Fight?

_Chapter 5: To Fight? Or Not to Fight?_

The rest of the week went by pretty quickly. Gohan managed to not get himself in any more jams, by studiously ignoring all of Ami's and Makoto's advances, and acting like they were just friends, which meant he passed on a trip to the park with all of them including Naru and Umino, because Ami and Makoto were far too demanding about going to the park. The rest of the time he spent mostly with Naru and Umino, or Usagi instead, who he kept calling Bunny, and completely missing Usagi's frustration over it.

On Saturday Gohan fought in the announced tournament, and not too surprisingly he won. They all had celebrated afterwards for as long as the parents still around allowed, which came down to that they had to be back by six for diner. Gohan was nervous for Monday when the new week started. Lucky for him, he came through it without much trouble . . . until the moment came that school was out, and he arrived at the school's main entrance / exit way.

The whole group of girls were present, and Makoto and Ami greeted Gohan at exactly the same time. Immediately the rivals turned and looked angrily at each other. "Why can't you just butt out!?" Ami told the brunette in irritation.

"Because I saw him first!" Makoto flung back at Ami. "And I have a butt worth looking at!"

"Why you!" Ami yelled and then grabbed Makoto's hair and started pulling. Makoto screeched in indignation, and returned the favor.

Gohan looked embarrassed at the scene, and when he noticed that the other girls, and even girls and boys not part of their group started standing around to watch, he quickly snuck away. The moment he was sure he was far enough away nobody would notice, he quickly ran around the corner and out of sight. He sighed in relief muttering, "Girls, they're insane, or at least those two are."

Makoto was finally fed up with the hair pulling match, yanked Ami's hands away from her hair, and performed a flawless judo throw, dumping Ami unceremoniously on the floor. "Ow!" Ami exclaimed, and quickly got up, rubbing her sore ass. "Gohan cares about intelligence, not brute force. Tell her, Goha . . ." Ami looked around and only saw snickering and out right laughing class mates, but no Son Gohan. "Gohan?"

Meanwhile, Minako, who had seen Gohan sneak away, and hadn't blamed him, was getting more and more fed up with the two fighting girls. Usagi was trying to calm the two down, without success.

"This is all your fault!" Makoto accused Ami. "You drove Gohan away, with your incessant bickering, and gnawing at his head with ridiculous discussions!"

"No, it isn't, he got turned off by your barbaric behavior!" Ami returned, getting ready to attack the brunette again.

"THAT'S IT! YOU TWO STOP IT NOW!!" Minako yelled out with surprising commanding presence. The two girls stopped and looked back at the blonde, seemingly chastised by just this, but Minako wasn't done yet. "Look at yourselves! You're a disgrace! Fighting over a boy like you're a bunch of sex slaves in the middle ages. It's bad enough you two are willing and steering toward sacrificing your friendship over a boy, but to do it over one who has _/no/_ romantic interest in either of you whatsoever, who only wants to be friends is stupid, and insane! And after this, you should consider yourselves blessed if he still wants to be friends with you two!"

"Gohan's just dense, and inexperience when it comes to girls, that's all," Ami defended herself, and Makoto nodded her agreement.

"_/Trust/_ me, if you think that, if you _/really/_ think that after this display Gohan still hasn't figured it out, you're the ones who are dense!" Minako told them angry, and then started counting on her finger. "He suddenly has plans with Umino and Naru, he misses a trip to the park with his entire class where I _/was/_ present and I'm not even from this school, every time he carefully danced around both of your feelings, now he quickly slipped away, he knows. He doesn't want anything but a friendship, he's just been too polite and careful around you two fools to say it as cold and bluntly to your faces as I am doing now, idiots!"

Makoto and Ami swallowed and slowly came down from their anger high, and looked around themselves again, getting more and embarrassed as the truth of Minako's words sank in. "Way to kill the romance, Minako!" Usagi scolded the other blonde, thinking, *I thought you were the Sailor Soldier of love?*

"Stupid odango-head!" Rei said in irritation. "Can't you pay attention!? The whole point of Minako's speech is that there _/is/_ _/no/_ romance to kill!"

"Why do you always have to be so mean!?" Usagi burst out with anger.

"I can't help it if you're an idiot!" Rei returned in irritation.

"I hate you!" Usagi spat out, and then turned around and ran off.

"Oh, great," Minako said in exasperation, if one couple wasn't fighting the other was.

*****

The sonic boom sounded as the hypersonic craft crashed into the Earth's atmosphere and streaked downward. It rapidly lost speed, but still got hot enough to have a white hot plasma trail at the beginning of its trip. The craft, triangular in shape, steered toward an open field behind Tokyo, and thus shot right over the ship. Japan would scramble its defensive fighters, but since the craft was on a one way trip toward ground and super fast, it would be off their radar screens in no time. But it put the Japanese military on alert, and had the planes looking for the craft in the general area it was headed.

The craft zoomed to a halt above a farmer's land. Landing gear moved out from under the belly, and then the spaceship gently landed. A hatch opened, on the craft that wasn't much bigger than a bus, place for only a few people, obviously a scout. Two aliens got out of the craft, and looked around. One was big, easily two meters and twenty centimeters tall, wide, all muscles. It had dark blue skin, giant fangs falling down over its lower lips - they were practically tusks. It had yellow eyes, with greenish irises, round pupils, and two pointy, almost dog-like ears were on top of its head. It wore some form of uniform, from the looks of it armored - it was dark green, had triangle shapes on its torso, and the alien wore heavy boots. "Damn it's cold," he muttered in the twenty-eight degrees Celcius heat.

The second alien was small, no more than one meter fifty, but it was wiry, all muscle. Although the muscles weren't big, they looked agile, and very deadly. Green fur covered his entire body . Its beady eyes were a deep light purple, and he had small pointy ears. It looked a little like a furred kobolt, except that his mouth seemed quite narrow and more human like. "I think it's nice and comfortable, better than the heat inside," the second alien grinned, receiving an incredulous look of his companion.

There was a sound, and the two looked up, seeing two fighter jets fly across the sky. They were getting closer, but their path didn't take them directly toward the aliens. "They build machines in order to fly?" the big blue alien grumbled with disdain. "How pathetic." He pointed his hand and fired an energy ball, quickly followed by a second, and moments later the balls connected with the planes and blew them apart, incinerating the pilots instantly. The alien chuckled.

"Damn it, Jarbal," the green alien admonished the bigger one. "We're here to look for that space time continuum distortion the ship picked up, and that energy spike. You can't go around destroying everything."

"I know, Dimwu, I'm not stupid!" the bigger alien told his companion.

"Yeah, well just keep yourself in check, and definitely do _/not/_ try to level any cities," Dimwu stated sternly. "The boss said if we destroyed whatever it was that caused that distortion, he would kill us, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah," Jarbal answered wearily. "Let's just get going already, and follow that damn sensor trinket of yours." Dimwu pushed a button and the ship sealed itself hermitically. Then the two of them blasted off toward Tokyo.

*****

Back in Tokyo, four of the five Sailor Soldiers walked along together, chatting about this and that. Ami and Makoto's rivalry seemed to be gone completely. Suddenly Luna and Artemis landed in front of them, and miaowed, rather unconvincingly. The group quickly went into a side alley, away from prying ears, and the Luna started speaking, "Hurry! Two monsters arrived from outer space, and have just entered Tokyo. They'll be in the central district soon!"

The girls nodded, and pulled out their magical pendants, then transformed into the micro skirt wearing Sailor Soldiers. Minako - Sailor Venus - in an orange skirt, Rei - Sailor Mars - in red, Makoto - Sailor Jupiter - in green, and Ami - Sailor Mercury - in traditional blue.

*****

A short while later the four heroines arrived at the scene. They stood upon a roof, and looked down at the blue and the smaller furred monster. "Wow, he's big," Sailor Venus commented a little in awe at the massiveness of the blue demon, and its muscles.

"All right, let's get going," Jupiter stated bloodthirstily, ready to take them on.

Mars interrupted Jupiter's eagerness with a concerned voice, "This is _/not/_ going to be easy." The other three looked at her, as she added, "They're powerful, that's something I can tell you. I don't know exactly how to describe what I'm feeling - but it's very similar to what I felt from Gohan and the other two at the tournament - but they're tough, that's for sure."

"Hold it!" Mercury commanded the others suddenly, and they looked over at the blue-haired soldier, who had a pair of futuristic goggles in front of her eyes, and a small computer device in her hand. "They're not demons, we can't attack them without reason." The whole group looked astonished at her.

"What!?" Jupiter asked incredulously.

"They're not demons, they have none of the characteristic energies surrounding them, they're just aliens here for a visit," Ami explained somewhat enthusiastically and engaged. "We can't attack them without provocation."

"But they're monsters," Venus pointed out.

Mercury answered with a slight smile, "They might find you even more of a monster than you them."

Mars cut in with irritation, "Are you telling me we should just let them walk around and let them destroy the city before we can do anything?"

Mercury got animated as she replied, "How would you feel if you just invented an interstellar spaceship, took it out for a spin, landed on a lovely planet, and as you admire the architecture some people jump you and start shooting you with the intent to kill you. As long as we can't be certain of their motives, we can't just attack them. 'Innocent until proven guilty'."

The cats fidgeted, not liking it but understanding Mercury's reasoning. Jupiter had gotten convinced herself, and said, "However much I hate to admit it, Mercury is right." Mars and Venus looked at the other two, the determination on their faces slowly faded, realizing the other two were right.

"How come nobody's screaming?" Artemis wondered out loud looking at the few people walking past the aliens without much more than a double take.

The Soldiers looked over. It was Luna that came up with a possible answer, "Could it be, people have seen enough demons being destroyed by you, they think if you're not attacking them they aren't evil?"

"Or real?" Venus asked. "Do they think they're in costume?"

*****

Down below, the two aliens walked onward casually. They were rather surprised none of the residents ran around screaming at their presence, they didn't think these people were advanced enough to have met other species in the universe. They were glad though, much easier to reach their goal if there were no hysterical people running about.

"Man, these people are weak," Jarbal commented looking on a scanner device mounted on his left wrist. Dimwu barely acknowledged him, fiddling with his scanner in deep concentration.

They passed a fruit stand, belonging to the shop they were walking by, and Jarbal casually grabbed an apple. After scanning there was nothing in the apple that was native to these people but poison to him, he took a big bite, and started chewing. "Hmm, pretty good fruit," he mumbled.

The shop owner came out of his shop at that moment, and screamed after them, "HEY, YOU!! YOU NEED TO PAY FOR THAT!"

Jarbal casually pointed his hand back and fired an energy ball. A moment later the ball connected with the shop owner's chest, and then the man crumpled to the ground, now having a hole where his chest had been. Neither Jarbal, nor Dimwu even showed a sign of any kind of event, as if what just happened was nothing important at all. The people around them though did notice, and started running as fast as they could.

*****

"Did you see that?" Mercury said, shocked at the casualness with which the alien had dispatch the shop owner, and the complete lack of reaction from the smaller green alien. "Not even a blink."

"That settles it then," Mars stated angrily, the other soldiers, and the cats nodded grimly. Then Mars added not pleased about it at all, "Call Sailor Moon, we might need her help with this one."

Venus pulled out the communicator, and after a quick command, the four jumped from the roof - intent to kick some alien ass.

*****

Gohan casually walked around the city, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He had switched clothes at home, and left to wander around thinking things through. Girls were insane, he had most definitely decided on that one. Question was, how did one go about dealing with insane people? And more importantly, how did you diffuse an obsession of two insane persons; said obsession being himself.

He had no idea, and he really didn't want to lose their friendship - if they weren't obsessing over him, they were great friends. Perhaps he should ask a girl? He shuddered at the thought, he really didn't want to be the but of a bunch of jokes of one of those insane people. But then, how else? So thinking Gohan didn't really pay attention where he went. Too lost in thought he didn't even notice the alien's landing. Finally, eventually, he did see Usagi. The girl seemed to look around, as if checking no one watched her, and slipped into a dirty side alley.

Gohan remembered his notion of asking a girl, and after hesitating, wishing it wasn't so, he decided she was the best of all horrible options. So he quickly walked to the side alley, and entered it. After another turn - Usagi had taken it too keep snoopers from the busy shopping street from seeing her - Gohan saw Usagi. He was just about to call her when he noticed she was talking into a communicator. Gohan blinked, and then his eyes widened more, when unnoticed by Usagi, he watched her transform. Engulfed in a pretty light show, Tsukino Usagi disappeared revealing Sailor Moon. She then quickly ran away.

"Whoa!" Gohan exclaimed when she was out of sight, catching himself. "Bunny!? Bunny is one of those short skirted heroines!?" It was true. The moment Usagi had finished her transformation, her ki was submerged in magical energy, altering her ki signature. However now that Gohan knew who Sailor Moon was, he realized it wasn't that hard to filter out her ki signature from beneath the magic. He hesitated a moment more, but curiosity and concern decided for him, and he locked on Sailor Moon's energy and ran after her, easily catching up.

*****

"Damn it!" Dimwu muttered, "There's no way to pinpoint it's location. One part of it says it's over there in the mountains, then there's a reading in that direction, and I've got another right in front of us!"

"Perhaps there are more than one?" Jarbal suggested casually.

Dimwu's face lightened, and then looked up at his companion. "You know, you aren't as stupid as you look," he said with a grin. Jarbal made a face but grinned evilly. "Ok, so, which one do we go check out first?" Dimwu wondered to himself. "Hmmm . . . I guess . . ."

Just as the small alien was about to point a direction, four girls in micro skirts dropped from above in front of them. They were all doing graceful dances, that joined together in a smooth unit. The aliens' jaws dropped at the sight, and even more so when they started chanting, "We're the Sailor Soldiers. Killing is bad, doing it after stealing is worse. In the name of love and justice we will punish you!" The four girls finished, standing next to each other, pointing at the two aliens.

"Oh, you have _/got/_ to be kidding me!" Jarbal exclaimed in disbelief, which caused the girls to straighten up and look mightily annoyed at him. "Do you girls think this is a movie or something? Think you can just act out your fantasies, and impress some potential mates? Some advice: less corny lines, more action."

To say the Soldiers were furious was an understatement, they looked darkly at the aliens. Dimwu decided to add, equally disbelieving, after seeing the power level of the girls on his sensor device, "Yeah, I don't know about the customs on this world, but shouldn't you four be in school or something?"

Ami took a step forward, angry as hell, and told them, "You're going to pay for that. We fight monsters like you two all the time, and they're all dead, and you won't be any different." She then started to glow with magic energy, causing the aliens to look a little surprised, and the sensor device to admit a shrill alert sound.

"Shabon spray!" Sailor Mercury exclaimed and a row of powerful magical bubbles shot from her hands and impacted on Jarbal. Mercury took an involuntary step back in shock, the other Soldiers gasped in similar shock, for Jarbal hadn't even flinched - with the exception of the rage now evident on his face.

"YOU TRIED TO KILL ME WITH SOAP BUBBLES!!" Jarbal raged out in extreme anger. "I don't know whether to take that as an insult, or you being stupid beyond belief!!"

Despite the shock, Mercury got angry, hissing at him, "I'll have you know I'm the most intelligent person in this country, if not the world!!"

"Really?" the big blue alien growled out with even greater anger. "In that case, I'll have to take it as an insult!" Mercury's eyes widened as the blue alien shot forward, and that's all she had time for before the being's fist smashed into her chin. Immediately she was launched backward, and the bone in her chin made a popping sound and her face blossomed with pain. She crashed into the hard street, and just bounced onward. She had never felt such pain, increasing with every bounce her body made on the hard asphalt, not even her magical transformation which made her tougher than she was normally, was able to protect from such raw power. Finally she came to a painful stop against the curb of a T-fork in the road. She groaned out in pain as she slowly wiggled around, trying to find out if she could still move.

Jupiter, Mars, and Venus looked with shock at their downed sister in arms, and the ease with with it was done. They looked back at the grinning alien, and quickly jumped back. "CRESCENT BEAM!" Venus screamed, pointed her finger and shot out a powerful energy projectile in the form a crescent moon.

The green furred alien smirked in amusement at the readout, and watched his companion move his arms protectively in front of him. The beam hit the alien's life energy that he had enveloped himself in like a protective cocoon. A jolt shot through Jarbal, and then the beam was absorbed. He stood up straight, and grinned evilly. "Is that all you've got?" he asked his grin never wavering.

"FIRE SOUL BIRD!" Mars exclaimed sending fire attack in the form of a bird straight at Jarbal. It connected and the conflagration whipped around the blue alien. He took a few steps forward, stepping out of the flames without a scratch on him, but with a giant smile. Mars looked shocked. "No way," she muttered.

"Aah, that's better, not quite there yet, but so much more like home!"Jarbal told her with a smirk. "I would thank you, but I don't believe in giving thanks."

He then shot forward and rammed an elbow across Mars's jaw, sending her flying against the wall behind her. She sank to her knees in pain. "SUPREME THUNDER!" Jupiter screamed, and a thunder strike came down against newly extended antenna on her tiara. They redirected the strike directly at Jarbal, but the alien exhibiting uncanny speed avoided the blast, and thus it hit the sidewalk several meters on, leaving a scorch mark and a small hole.

With a roar - which sounded more like an impetuous shriek coming from the young girl - Venus threw a fist at the alien. Jarbal blocked the punch with a grin and an open hand palm. Venus threw another fist, and a kick, and another. Each one the massive Jarbal avoided or blocked with a mere raised palm. Venus couldn't comprehend how a being so massive was so fast. She gained assistance from Jupiter. The two magical warriors fought it out with the non-magical, normal - as far as normal applied to an alien - Jarbal, and yet neither of them could even get a punch in. Finally Jupiter was fed up, and with a scream of rage she attacked harder and faster then she ever had before, Venus joined her instantly in the hope a double attack at their maximum could do the trick. It did, two fists hit his head, and two kicks hit the abdomen of the alien that could only be described as monstrous. Both girls took a step back, wincing at the dull ache in their fists, and looked even more astounded when it was apparent all they had succeeded in doing was snapping his head to one side.

Jarbal regarded them, and then laughed, and laughed harder as he moved up his hands and they started to glow. Both girls' eyes widened, just at the energy exploded, and the concussion wave sent the both of them flying backward. Venus crashed into the wall at the corner of a building, and Jupiter groaned as she landed painfully on the hard pavement right next to the corner.

"Aah!" Mars screamed as she returned back to the fight. She sailed through the air, and threw a powerful punch to Jarbal's face. Unfortunately for her, what she called powerful, Jarbal considered pitiful. While she was still in the air, he grabbed her upper arm, and yanked her down. Mars landing painfully with her stomach on his knee, causing her to cough for breath, and groan in pain. Then Jarbal casually threw her aside, so she landed next to her slowly rising friends.

"We've got to find an opening," Jupiter told them with a depressed tone, realizing they had severely underestimated the two - not that they had much choice about fighting the thing if they hadn't underestimated him.

Mars looked over to Mercury and saw her slowly stagger to her feet, and then watched a gloating Jarbal just standing their in the middle of the street. She told her friends then, "He's just toying with us, he's much more powerful than that he's letting us see."

"You've got to be kidding me," Venus commented shaking her head to try and clear it, she'd never been hit this hard before, and the fact that the thing was just standing there, arms folded across his chest, grinning with satisfaction did not sit well with the blonde.

At that moment a white rose came soaring into view, which perked up the Sailor Soldiers especially hearing the Knight of the Moonlight's voice from up there somewhere saying, "Sailor Soldiers, you should not . . ." Of course the up mood quickly came down when the knight's voice stopped in surprise, for the rose was pushed aside by Jarbal's ki, and dropped harmlessly to the floor without even touching the alien.

"What the . . .!?" Jarbal exclaimed in surprise. He looked at the rose and then bent down and picked it up. He examined it and its thorns. He looked up seeing the Arabian robed man standing on the roof of a three story building. "Say, Dimwu, why the hell do you think pansy threw a flower at me?"

Dimwu shrugged, just as puzzled as Jarbal, and speculated, "Perhaps it's some kind of challenge ritual . . . or he wants to date you." The Sailor Soldiers couldn't believe the conversation, and looked even more shocked at what happened next.

Jarbal suddenly stood all girly, blinked his eyes and said with a gentle voice, "I'm very flattered, sir . . ." Then his posture returned to being all ruthless, and crumpled the rose in his hand. He raised both hands and an energy ball formed in them, and he finished, "but I don't date outside my species, that's just sick." Jarbal fired his energy ball upward then, and a moment later it smashed into the building's side, just below the Knight of the Moonlight. Instantly the ball exploded, and tore apart a large part of the buildings corner, and roof. The Knight of the Moonlight was hurtled off the building, a lot of the stone debris smashing into him. He shot out a line from somewhere, which connected to the undamaged part of the roof. His almost complete obfuscation of his face the only thing keeping the fear in his eyes from become visible to everyone. He was in luck, the line with grappling hook snagged somewhere, and he swung downward, instead of dropping to his death.

Before he reached the ground though, Dimwu snickered, pointed a finger and fired a small energy blast. It shredded the hero's line and he dropped the last part to the ground. "Oops," Dimwu said sarcastically as the knight dropped to the floor painfully and rolled along a few meters.

Mercury had enough. Remembering the alien's comment about liking he heat, she got up and attacked. Going into an elaborate motion, she screamed at the top of her lungs, "SHABON SPRAY FREEZING!" Jarbal who had payed attention to the other three warriors and the new arrival was surprised and got frozen solid. "I got him!" Mercury stated with a victorious cheer.

The other Soldiers quickly started powering up their attacks. To Mercury's shock, the ice suddenly started to melt, forming a pool of water at Jarbal's feet. Suddenly a flame of visible energy burst around the blue alien, and the ice splintered as he shot forward. He grabbed Mercury painfully around her throat and lifted her off the ground. "You didn't really think a little ice could stop me, did you!?" he growled at her, as she struggled to try and get out of his unrelenting grasp. With a quick yank her threw away then.

"CRESCENT . . ." was as far as Venus came before Mercury crashed painfully into her and the two girls went tumbling backward.

"SUPREME THUNDER!" Jupiter just finished her attack, and the electric bolt shot forward hitting the blue alien.

"AARGH!!" he screamed out as the electricity fried his synapses, and he took a few involuntary steps back and shook his head to clear himself.

"That's it!" Mars yelled quickly. "Electricity can hurt him, quickly Jupiter, again!" Mars saw Dimwu start to move to stop Jupiter, and so she quickly fired a Fire Soul at the smaller alien to keep him from doing just that. The smaller alien avoided the attack thought, but it gave Jupiter just enough time to fire off another attack.

"Supreme Thunder Dragon!" Jupiter finished, and with a roar a dragon made from electricity shot forward and enveloped Jarbal. Jupiter not wanting to take a chance, kept the attack going unlike normally. Jarbal screamed as the electricity and the dragon itself tried to devour him.

Jarbal staggered back under the onslaught, and finally had enough. "THAT'S IT!" he roared, his arms going into a fists and a powerful ki flame burst around him and outward, staggering Jupiter with the feedback it caused in her attack, and making Mars look in astonishment at just how much power the being had hidden away. With a grin, Jarbal pointed his hands directly into the attack and fired an energy ball. The thunder dragon was dragged along by the ball, crumpled and wrapped itself around the ball of energy. Moments later it crashed into a shocked Jupiter and she was launched backward at the impact, now her own attack and Jarbal's attacking her. The electricity re-directing antenna's on her head now the only thing protecting her from the attacks. She crashed painfully into the wall of a building behind her as the attack dissipated.

[Start Gohan's theme]

"No more Mister Nice Guy!!" Jarbal growled, the massive alien zeroing in on Mercury. He grinned and shot forward. He grabbed the shocked girl by her shoulders and rammed his knee into her stomach. She doubled over in pain, coughing up blood. Next he threw a punch across her face, causing a bloody nose. He pulled his arm back, ramming his elbow across her right cheek, smashing her face back and breaking her jaw. Dazed by now, Mercury could never hope to protect herself from the devastating uppercut that followed. She groaned as she was launched into the air, smashed against a window, splintering it. She dropped to the floor, being cut in several places by the glass and lay there still, unconscious and too beat up to get up anyway.

Jarbal slowly turned facing Venus, who suddenly jerked with fear, realizing she was next and there didn't seem to be a way to avert it. She started her beam attack, but didn't even get halfway before a punch to her gut doubled her over in pain. Her eyes widened when she felt herself being lifted off the ground by her hair. Shocked she saw his feet rising from the ground as well, and then she was brought down. Jarbal's knee bashed into her face with enormous power, and her head snapped back at the impact. The sound of bone crunching reached the dazed girl's ears, the pain threatening to black her out. Too dazed to feel anything except excruciating pain only Jarbal's laughter made her realize it was her bones, not his. Blood oozed from wounds on her face, and she gurgled as she felt her arm being twisted into an impossible position, hearing her tendons snap and pop. Then she was thrown through the air, and she didn't stop until she crashed painfully against a wall, then dropped to the floor right next to the battered Mercury.

Mars and Jupiter looked shocked at the sight of their battered companions. The Knight of the Moonlight was similarly shocked. Not even when they were all killed several months earlier had they been in such a brutal battle, and the one doing damage didn't even seem to be phased, let alone hurt. His sinister growling laugh drew their gazes to the impossibly strong alien, by which point an uppercut sent Jupiter up in the air. The alien went after her and smashed his fist in her stomach, flipping her over stomach down. Jupiter gasped, eyes wide in shock and pain as she felt a rib breaking.

"Go kiss your planet in thanks," Jarbal grinned and bashed the girl down with a double handed blow to her back. She crashed into the ground and screamed in pain. "Look out down below!" Jarbal grinned evilly and hurtled down.

"Jupiter no!" Mars called out in, as Jupiter looked up in fear. Jarbal landed, one foot next to Jupiter, the other smashed into her back with force. She screamed in pain, and went rigid. The ribs in her back broke audibly. Jarbal laughed with glee, then pulled his foot back, and Jupiter's eyes widened. A moment later his foot hit her face dead on, sending more pain to her brain. Blood gushed out from wounds instantly, and deep purple bruises blossomed on her face with the same haste as she was launched through the air by the vicious kick. She didn't stop flying until she crashed into the wall with her already battered back, and then dropped to the ground next her two companions. She lay still as tears flowed from her eyes, unable to muster the strength to get up.

Mars swallowed as fear grew inside of her, looking at the alien as he zeroed in on her. She realized she had kept the one who's attacks were the most useless - in fact she could only make him more comfortable - for last. With a defiant yell the Knight of the Moonlight jumped in. With a casual motion of the alien's arm Jarbal bashed the knight into his stomach, and made him fly back a meter before landing on the street. "I'll get to you later," Jarbal told him casually.

Defiantly - fear gripped her every being - Mars charged. Jarbal grabbed her copious air and simply lifted her off the ground. "No!" she screamed, kicking and screaming more, but her arms and legs couldn't even reached the giant alien monster. Jarbal laughed once, and then went down, ramming a wide-eyed Mars face first in the pavement. She groaned in pain, stars bursting behind her eyelids.

"Wanna go again?" Jarbal asked with amusement and lifted her off the ground.

"No," Mars protested weakly before being smashed into the pavement again, and again, and again. After four more times her face was nothing but a bloody mess, and she had two concussions. Jarbal let go. Ever defiant the fire warrior pushed herself to her knees. Jarbal shook his head once, and then with a left backhand sent her sailing through the air to join her friends with a painful landing.

Jarbal grinned with satisfaction as he saw Mercury coming to, and Venus and Jupiter slowly get back up to shaky feet. They were done for; they knew it, he knew it, but apparently they wouldn't acknowledge it. That gave him certain ideas for their future. For now he turned around and looked at the risen Knight. "So it's just you and me, pansy boy," Jarbal growled with satisfaction. Before the knight could react, Jarbal grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the floor. "Tell me, just how big of a coward are you? Shall we find out who's behind the robes?" Jarbal asked with a deep grin. "I won't know you, but I have this innate urge to rip apart the packaging of every little present."

"Knight of the Moonlight!!" a voice shrieked out in shock, and Jarbal and Dimwu who had enjoyed watching Jarbal take care of the halfwits looked over to see the arrival of Sailor Moon. "Guys . . ." she whispered as she saw the battered state of her slowly rising friends.

Jarbal casually threw aside the knight putting him with the others, as Venus - shaking her head to clear the cobwebs - thought of her duty to protect the princess, and weakly said, "Sailor Moon get out of here."

Sailor Moon didn't here her and she said with extreme anger, "I'm pretty soldier Sailor Moon, and you bastards hurt my friends . . ."

"Oh brother, not another one," Dimwu said with disgust.

Jarbal gave a laugh, shot left past Dimwu, and put his fist and Sailor Moon's stomach. " . . . in the name . . ." Sailor Moon doubled over in pain, her speech dying on her lips.

"A little advice," Jarbal told her with a grin, turning over his hand and grabbing the doubled over girl by her collar, "don't talk so much." He then simply threw her over his shoulders, and she dropped painfully down on the pavement. Her face crunched up in fear and pain, she scrambled backward, before getting up and pulling out her scepter. Jarbal just laughed and spread his arms, inviting her wordlessly to take her best shot.

"Bastard!" Sailor Moon said and started performing a complex set of motions. "MOON PRINCESS HALATION!!" A beam of pink energy shot from her moon scepter straight at Jarbal. The beam hit, and then dissipated. Sailor Moon looked shocked at the laughing and unharmed alien.

Jarbal brought his arms to his chest, and said, "Wow, impressive! That actually tickled." A moment later Jarbal was near the scared Sailor Moon and bashed her across her left cheek. She flew to her right and smashed into the wall of a building. Her friends were a building and a street further. Jarbal turned to face the warrior for love, truth and justice who staggered back to her feet in pain.

*Oh, shit,* Sailor Moon thought, looking at the giant, and rubbing her painful head. *If energy can't hurt him, hopefully something solid can.* She picked off her tiara and started a complex pirouette.

Dimwu joined his companion, and asked the giant, "What do you think is the idea behind these attacks, Jarbal? We get so bored waiting we fall asleep and get hit unguarded?"

"Must be," Jarbal muttered in disbelief.

At the same time Sailor Moon finished her pirouette and yelled, "MOON TIARA ACTION!" The tiara was then thrown like a frisbee at the alien glowing with energy.

Jarbal easily picked the tiara out of the air, looked at it and said, "I think she wants to play catch."

"No way!" Sailor Moon said freezing up in shock and fear.

"The polite thing to do would be to take her up on her offer," Dimwu replied to Jarbal grinning evilly.

"And I am nothing if not polite," Jarbal returned and then to Sailor Moon he called, "Here, catch!" Jarbal threw the tiara back, in the same frisbee manner, but far faster than Sailor Moon could ever hope to throw it herself. The tiara crashed into her stomach, the wind was knocked out of her lungs, and she cried out in horrendous pain as she was flung back, doubled over the tiara. She crashed painfully against the wall behind her again, and then sank to the floor. She grabbed her stomach, and cried out, gasping for breath through the pain that seemed to be everywhere in her body.

*****

Gohan watched it happen from his hiding position in an alley. Pain blossomed through his being, an emotional pain. Every instinct he had in him told him to help, but his intellect held him check. Every time he wanted to jump in, the words, *You can't interfere. This is not your world. They must do this themselves. If you interfere you might make things worse, if not for them, then for the entire planet later.*

He shook his head wishing things weren't like this, and then the sound of powerful engines assaulted his ears. Two tanks drove into view. One of them close to him, the other on the other side of the two aliens.

"You monsters give yourselves up now!!" a male, obviously military, voice said from a bullhorn on the tank closest to Gohan. "Or we open fire, nobody attacks Japan like this, least of all those who would attack our beloved heroes." All it did was make the aliens narrow there eyes in annoyance. "They're not complying, all right, let her rip."

"They won't stand a chance," Gohan said, the inner battle still raging. A powerful boom followed. A grenade was launched from the tank's barrel and moments later it impacted on the aliens and a powerful explosion followed.

*****

"We got them good!" the tank commander exclaimed in triumph, even the Sailor Soldiers seemed relieved, although they were concerned for their leader who was pretty close to the explosion, but she didn't really seem harmed, although it was close . . .

. . . All except Mars. She looked with horror at the smoke where the aliens just were. "No way," she muttered. "They can't still be . . ."

Jarbal suddenly stepped out of the column of smoke, unharmed, and he did not seem happy. At almost the same moment Dimwu stepped out of it on the opposite side, each facing a different tank. "You insects are really starting to annoy me," Jarbal stated at a fearful and disbelieving commander and mystical warriors. "Do you have any idea how high my cleaning bill is going to be!?" Jarbal raged out, pointing at the dust covering his uniform. He pointed out his hand, as did Dimwu, and both generated a powerful ball of energy with a little concentration. Then the fired them, as the tank commander frantically ordered to get going. It was far too late though, the energy attacks hit the tanks, and both exploded in a spectacular display of pyrotechnics. The Sailor Soldiers ducked and warded off any debris of the closest tank.

Jarbal turned back around and faced the fearful Sailor Moon still clutching her painful stomach. He pointed his hand at her and formed a new energy ball. "You, ugly one, I'll kill, rest assured in the notion that I won't kill your friends. After they're healed - and I've given them a proper training . . ." Jarbal grinned in anticipation a that, " . . . they'll fetch a good price on the sex slave market."

*****

The two talking cats landed near the other Sailor Soldiers who were looking at the scene unfolding frozen with shock. "You must help the princess!" Luna called out in desperation.

"How?" Mercury croaked out.

*****

Gohan was tense, his eyes squinted shot, his right arm in a tight fist. The anger at what had happened and what was going to happen growing every moment. *I could have saved those lives!! But I can't! I mustn't! It's not my place!!*

*****

"Goodbye, bitch," Jarbal finished and fired his explosive ball of energy. The ball shot forward at incredible speeds and exploded mightily, sending pieces of pavement flying everywhere.

*****

"Usagi!" Mercury cried out in horror, tears flowing from her eyes, stinging against her bruises.

"Oh, god, no," Jupiter muttered in horror as her eyes started misting up. Tears flowed from Venus' eyes as well.

Mars looked - as best as she could with her bloody and eyes swelled shut - at the scene in shocked silence with mouth dropped open.

*****

Blackness. Darkness. Everywhere she looked there was nothing but inky black. *Oh, Kamis, I'm blind! Oh, Kamis, I'm dead! Oh, Kamis, I'm both!* Sailor Moon thought in mounting horror. *Wait a minute.* A small creak of light fell on her lens, and she let that fact filter into her mind. Then Sailor Moon fearfully opened her left eye further and noticed the dust around her. Nervously she opened her right eye, and took a quick look around. *I'm still alive! But how!?* She became aware of a silhouette standing in front of her, one that became rapidly more clearer as the dust started dispersing. "Gohan?" she whispered in disbelief.

Gohan slowly turned around and regarded her. His face filled with anger for just a moment, and then was replaced with genuine concern. "Are you ok, Usagi?" Sailor Moon nodded dumbly, not really noticing the use of her real name. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah," Sailor Moon said softly her eyes filling with confused gratitude.

"Good. Usagi, go to your friends, _/I'll/_ handle this," Gohan told her gently but with command.

"But," Usagi whispered.

"Go," Gohan said. Usagi nodded and then painfully got to her feet. She picked up her tiara, and then ran to her friends.

*****

Jarbal was chuckling at the nice leftovers of the explosion, when Sailor Moon emerged and ran over to her friends. "What the hell!?" he exclaimed in disbelief. It seemed the girl didn't have a scratch on her. That couldn't be possible. Dimwu and the girl's friends cried out in equal surprise, and so he looked back at the explosion site. So did Dimwu, and then the dust settled completely to reveal Gohan, the dust sliding down his ki field, and not touching him at all. He looked up at the two aliens with an angry look.

"Attacking defenseless girls, cowards," Gohan told them in a low growl.

"Shit!! Look at that - another kid!" Jarbal exclaimed in annoyance. "What the fuck is wrong with this world, Dimwu!?! Nothing but kids, little girls, and a bunch of fools in toys! Where are the men!? The pansy in robes over there is the only one, and he's weak and barely old enough to be considered a man!"

Sailor Moon reached her friends, and looked in shock at their state. In turn they looked in shock at Gohan, their friend Gohan apparently ready to take on the two monsters. "Don't worry, this world has its heroes and men," they heard Gohan tell the big and seemingly invincible alien. "It's just that they won't bother with a few weaklings like you. They know more than a kid isn't necessary to beat the crap out of you."

"WHAT!?" they heard Jarbal roar in rage at that.

"Hold still, guys," Sailor Moon said as she picked the tiara off her head. "Moon tiara stardust!" she said and threw the tiara. It sailed over her friends, including the Knight of the Moonlight's head, and sprinkles of light came raining down from it, hitting the Sailor Soldiers. When the sprinkles hit them their bruises mended, and cuts healed. Sailor Moon grabbed the tiara back out of the air, and the soldiers and the knight stood up straighter and easier, but still wincing. "Sorry, but that's all I can do," Sailor Moon told them sadly, as she saw them still gripping their broken and cracked ribs.

Mars still looked with her mouth agape at Gohan, hardly noticing her mostly healed face, and she whispered too softly for anyone to hear, "Incredible. He could obliterate the entire . . . how can anyone have that kind of power?"

Jarbal in the mean had walked over to Gohan, and growled at the half-Saiyan, "I'll show you." He threw a devastating punch . . . and missed. Gohan had just leaned to his left a bit, the fist going past his head. "Huh?" Jarbal muttered looking into the angry eyes of the raven-haired boy who looked back directly into the alien's eyes. "Why you . . .!" Jarbal called out, and pulled his missed fist back. He lashed out another punch, which Gohan side stepped. A kick followed and Gohan jumped over it. Another punch and Gohan ducked beneath it, then rolled between the alien's legs and came out the other side. "What!?"

"Behind you," Gohan told him and Jarbal jumped around.

"You little fuck!" Jarbal kicked out, and Gohan side stepped. Jarbal threw a low punch, and Gohan bended backward, making Jarbal's fist fly over him. This went on a few more times, Jarbal getting more angry by the minute. "That's it!" he said and fired energy balls, that Gohan easily avoided. They exploded on impact leaving a bunch of small pot holes in asphalt. "STAND STILL, YOU LITTLE INSECT!!" Jarbal roared and smashed both his fists down. Gohan jumped to the side lightly, and Jarbal's fist smashed into the asphalt cracking it open. Gohan grabbed the overextended arms and gave a quick tug. Jarbal staggered forward, tripped because of the sudden motion and dropped onto his stomach. 

"THAT'S IT! YOU THINK YOU CAN MOCK ME!?" Jarbal raged and jumped into the air. He flew up, laughing maniacally he raised his hands above his head and started charging an exceptionally powerful ball of energy. Gohan casually followed him with his eyes moving his head upward. "LET'S SEE YOU AVOID OR OUTRUN THIS ONE, KID! I'M GOING TO LEVEL THE WHOLE CITY!!" Jarbal yelled insanely.

"Damn!" Dimwu exclaimed in irritation, and he flew up to avoid being destroyed along with the city. "I take it back, you _/are/_ stupid! Stop it, you damn fool!"

"He's bluffing, he's got to be. He can't blow up the entire city, can he?" Mercury said fearfully, looking up at the growing energy blast.

"He can," Mars replied without real thought, her sixth sense latching onto the energies flowing around the whole area and being lost in the sensations.

"We have to get out of here!" Venus said somewhat afraid. The two cats looked at each other thinking if they could teach the Sailor Soldiers the teleportation technique.

"We'll never make it, we're done for," the Knight of the Moonlight added solemnly readying himself to die.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK NOW, KID!? SCARED YET!?" Jarbal screamed having a small energy bomb about one and a half meters in diameter between his raised, and outstretched arms. The bomb had a red outer rim, was dark blue just underneath, and had a white, brightly sparkling inner core.

Gohan was looking up at him, locking eyes, and didn't even gave a flicker. Fists casually next to his body, giving him the mere boy a sense of superiority. Then he gave a smirk, and said, "Bring it on."

"God, he's so brave!" Sailor Moon gushed. "He doesn't even show fear."

Mercury and Jupiter took a step forward, Jupiter shouting, "Gohan get out of there, save yourself!" They were about to step forward when the remarkably resolute arms of Mars grabbed both by a shoulder. They turned annoyed half around, and saw her shake her head.

At the same time Jarbal roared in anger. "FINE! DIIIEEEE!!!"

"Don't do it, you bastard!" Dimwu yelled in vain, knowing it would destroy what they came here for. With a roar Jarbal threw the ball of energy downward and it rushed down straight for Gohan.

The half-Saiyan casually looked at the ball of destructive energy rapidly coming closer. He didn't do anything, he just stood there. "We're doomed," Artemis said, realizing using the teleportation was far too late now.

The ball of energy rushed to the Earth, closer and closer. There was nothing to oppose the raw amount of destructive power. In morbid fascination the Sailor Soldiers watched it going down, and down, putting Gohan, themselves and the direct environment in a eerily changing light, causing even more eery shadows; the eeriness of onrushing death. The ball was practically on top of Gohan, and still he just stood there, smirking. Still closer the ball came, and just as the ball was about to hit the half-Saiyan, explode, and destroy the entirety of Tokyo, Gohan rapidly, but casually, flung up his hand, and squatted the ball back up as if it was a pesky fly. The ball shot upward into the atmosphere with incredibly speeds, shooting right past Jarbal who followed the ball and its upward path with dropped jaw, and said, "Impossible." Dimwu was looking up at the rapidly shrinking ball with the same slack jawed look, and pulled his scanner out, took a reading, and paled in shock.

The Sailor Soldiers looked equally shocked and relieved at the ball shooting up and away. "I guess he was bluffing after all," Knight of the Moonlight muttered.

"No, he wasn't," Mars replied like a robot. Suddenly there was a blinding light, and they all averted, closed and covered their eyes in a reflex. Then a slow rumble became audible, and it quickly gained in strength. The buildings around them started to vibrate, and then suddenly they were knocked off their feet, windows in the nearby windows shattering and raining down. The shockwave of the energy ball had been weakened enough during its path back down it wouldn't destroy the city, but it still had enough power to shatter virtually every window throughout it. "I guess I was wrong," the knight groaned out, and slowly got back to his feet. The girls around him did the same, and looked around at the splintered glass everywhere, and raised their arms protectively against the glass still coming down from higher up. They looked over and saw Gohan standing there, still looking up and the glass bouncing off his invisible energy field.

Jarbal looked back down in disbelief, back into Gohan's eyes. Gohan's smirk deepened, and he called out, "_/Now/_ it's _/my/_ turn." Gohan blinked out of existence, making the Sailor Soldiers gasp out in surprise. A moment later Gohan reappeared at Jarbal, who had only been able to see the rapid moving Gohan, but had no way to react in time. Gohan's fist rammed into the blue alien's gut, cracking bones, doubling him over, and making him groan and gasp out in pain. Gohan's face was in an angry grimace as his fist stayed in its position for a moment. Then Jarbal coughed up blood and Gohan slowly floated down a little.

The Sailor Soldiers and the knight stood there, looking up in shock at the pair floating next to each other. "One punch," Venus whispered audibly in awe, "just one punch." The others gave a nod.

Gohan and Jarbal had locked gazes, Jarbal just looked with his eyes, and Gohan had his head cocked just slightly. "What are you?" Jarbal croaked out, coughing up some more blood.

Gohan just gave a smile, and with a quick scream he flashed upside down, and rammed his foot onto Jarbal's back in between what passed as shoulder blades. Jarbal gave a yell of pain, and then of fear as he rapidly hurtled to the ground, where he crashed into the concrete. There was a shockwave, an explosion, and then smaller and bigger pieces of asphalt were thrown everywhere. The girls and the knight once again covered their heads with their arms from the onslaught of pebbles of asphalt. Gohan watched with a grim smile as the dust settled, revealing a moderate crater with the crumpled form of a barely alive Jarbal at the bottom.

Suddenly Gohan shot his head over to the right, looking directly at the smaller green alien. Dimwu had subconsciously let himself float back down, and was standing on the asphalt of the street, his eyes widening when he realized the amazingly strong boy had now targeted him. Fearfully he started running. Gohan flashed down, arrived right next the smaller alien, smashing his right elbow in the things face at the same time. With painful yell at his broken nose, Dimwu was launched backward. He bounced several times on the street and then dropped into the crater, joining his companion. Gohan turned around, moved his left foot as if to set it down on the asphalt and then flashed out of existence. He put his foot down, and then his other, right at the edge of the crater. He stuck out his right hand, pointed it at the two aliens and charged an energy ball.

"Does he teleport?" Usagi muttered out.

"No, all speed," Mars replied with furrowed brows, having felt Gohan move. "How can this be?" Mars added out loud. "Gohan's got enough power in him to obliterate this planet . . . with ease." The team of heroes looked over at their fellow warrior, and looked at her in shock.

Dimwu groaned and slowly opened his eyes, they widened in fear when he saw the deadly ball of energy pointing at them. "Listen to me carefully, I'm warning you only once," Gohan told him in a voice filled with anger and command, "my father would have let you go just on principle, and he would probably let you go over and over again. I'm not my father, but in honor of him, I will let you go only once. So take this opportunity and better your lives. Return here and I _/will/_ kill you. I meet you up there and you haven't bettered your lives, and I _/will/_ kill you. Got that?" Dimwu nodded in fear. "Then get out of here, before I change my mind. Take your friend with you, and tell him what I told you."

Dimwu nodded again, and hefted Jarbal up on his shoulder, who groaned out in pain only half-conscious. Then the alien lifted slowly in the air, and shot away toward their space ship.

[Stop Gohan's theme]

Once out of sight, Gohan's grim face transformed in a bright smile, and he walked over to his group of friends. "Hey, guys," Gohan told them smiling. "You were amazing, heroes all of you."

The Sailor Soldiers looked surprised at Gohan's familial tone. "Uh," Minako, the oldest and most experienced of them managed first. "You know us."

Gohan looked puzzled for a moment, and then answered, "Of course, Minako. Ami, Makoto, Rei, and Bunny." The Sailor Soldiers looked even more shocked at that revelation. "Why are you looking so weird? It isn't as if you're wearing masks now is it? Besides, I can sense your ki." The girls eyes widened slightly and they looked away from Gohan and at each other silently communicating their shock. Gohan looked over at the knight, frowning and in thought. "You though, I don't know, but you feel familiar, and really weird."

"Ah, right, well, I'm the Knight of the Moonlight," Knight of the Moonlight said, backing up nervously. "Well, it's been fun and all, but I've got to go again. Finding more wrongs to right and all, I'm sure you fellow heroes know how it is . . . ah . . . well, goodbye then." Then the robed figure quickly turned around and ran away, after a few steps he whipped out a few metal claws, jumped up and climbed up a wall then disappeared quickly.

Gohan blinked his eyes once at the hero's odd disappearance and then turned back to his friends smiling. "So, where shall we go now? I'm certain you've got a lot of questions to ask me," Gohan asked brightly.

"First of all," Artemis the cat said sternly since the shocked Soldiers didn't seem willing or able to do it. Gohan looked down at the cat, and smiled not surprised in the least at the talking cat, which once more surprised the girls, as well as Luna the other cat. "No more mentioning of their real names in public, got that?"

"Uh, sure," Gohan answered, not really getting the importance, but if that what they wanted. "So there are talking animals here after all, huh?" The girls' jaws dropped once again at that statement.


	6. Chapter 6: Revealing Secrets

_Chapter 6: Revealing Secrets_

They had arrived at Rei's grandfather's Shinto shrine an hour earlier. First they had mended their wounds and broken bones with ancient Shinto medicinal magic, and Artemis and Luna knew some healing magic as well. They were sitting in one of the small buildings, which had wooden walls, standing upon a small stone foundation. All of them - except Gohan - were nervous, Rei's announcement that Gohan could obliterate the planet with ease still ringing in their ears. Finally Usagi was the one who asked the burning question, "Ok, you know our secrets, now you tell us yours? Who are you? What are you? Because there's no way you're just a human being!"

"Actually," Gohan answered with a slight smile. "I _/am/_ human, just not one hundred percent so, and I _/do/_ know pure Humans who are as - or at least nearly as - strong as I am, and could have done what I did with the same ease." The group of warriors and two cats around him just looked silently at him, some a little astonished, but mostly just waiting with impatience dripping from their faces for an actual answer. Gohan sighed, and then continued, "I was born on Earth, in a different dimension from yours. My mother - still very much alive - is the crown princess of the king of the Ox kingdom. I have a little brother Goten, who got me here. My father is Son Goku, and he's one of the last surviving Saiyan's - a race of ruthless, evil, sadly once noble, warriors. He was sent to the Earth to destroy it when he was just a baby, but he got knocked on his head and forgot who he was. Instead he became Earth's greatest hero . . . He _/is/_ dead, he sacrificed his life to save the world."

The group looked at him with large dumbfounded eyes. Finally Ami's sharper mind digested the information first, "That would make you the crown prince of this Ox kingdom, and a half-Human, half-Saiyan hybrid." Gohan nodded. "How did you get here? Magic?" Ami asked frowning over Gohan's statement that his little brother got him here.

Gohan shook his head, and gathered his thoughts, trying to figure out how to say this. "About a year ago, in _/another/_ dimension an ancient and evil Hellgoddess tried to get back to her own dimension. The only way for her to do it, was to utilize an equally ancient dimensional key. Unfortunately that key opened _/all/_ dimensions everywhere at the same time, including ours. During the time the tear was open, quite a few people from other dimensions got sucked through and ended up stranded in our dimension by the time the Hellgoddess was stopped and the tear closed. Since then one of my friends - Bulma Briefs is her name, a friend of my father's even before I was born - has been experimenting with an interdimensional ship, so we could send them back home. My little brother managed to sneak into the lab room just when we were about to send the first prototype with a living being inside across the dimensional barriers. I managed the get Goten out of the way, but I was sucked along for the ride."

"A year ago?" the white cat Artemis frowned, and then looked at Luna and then at the girls. "So _/that's/_ how the Negaverse managed to regain entry to our realm, they must have used that dimensional tear."

"Damn," Ami cursed uncharacteristically, the others looking at her with wide eyes of shock, "That's why you enjoyed discussing hyper-dimensional physics with me so much! All those 'what if?' questions, there was no 'what if?' about them, am I right? How often did you laugh at my answers?"

Gohan grinned a little, and said, "Not often, a few times your answers were a little amusing." Ami folded her arms across her chest, and hmpfed with indignation. Gohan smiled at her. "Sorry," he apologized.

Usagi got up then and walked over to Gohan who looked puzzled at her. Usagi stuck out a finger and touched his cheek. "What was that for?" Gohan asked, feeling his cheek where she had touched.

"Just wanted to see if you were real," Usagi told him with a large eyes. "Till now, every alien I've seen were evil and wanted to kill me."

"Not evil here, and only half-alien. Remember, Bunny?" Gohan told her, smiling. Usagi narrowed her eyes at him, and sat back down.

"How do you know about the Hellgoddess?" Rei asked, intrigued by Gohan's mention of a god as if it was nothing.

"Well, another Saiyan, who had escaped Vegeta's - the Saiyans' home world - destruction into that other dimension came to our dimension on an important errand just before the portal opened. His ship is basically what Bulma's designs are loosely based upon," Gohan answered and looked around the room for any more questions.

"You won't be staying here," Makoto stated suddenly, sad at the revelation.

Gohan shook his head, "The moment I fix my ship, or Bulma finishes a new one and sends it to me, I'm going back home. I've really enjoyed being here, but it isn't home."

"An evil kami," Rei said softly, marveling at the concept. "An evil goddess, straight out of legends and myths. How come you talk about it like that's no big deal?"

"Because it isn't?" Gohan tried with hunched eyebrows.

"BECAUSE IT ISN'T!?!?" Rei exclaimed in disbelief. "Look at me, I'm studying to be a Shinto priestess. I believe in kamis, but I've never seen one, if they've ever been visible, real life, 'hello, how are you?' present, it's been eons ago . . . and although I believe they are still around, I have no proof; I don't _/know/_ they are real, or ever _/have/_ been real. How can you talk about gods, like they're no big deal!? As if you've met one in person!?"

"Two, actually, one being the successor of the first," Gohan told her. Rei's jaw dropped, so did the others. "The first was Kami, that was his name 'Kami', like my name is 'Gohan'. He was kami of the Earth, it's guardian. The second kami's name is Dende. He's about as old as I am, a year a younger I think, we've been friends, kind of, even before he took over position as the god of the Earth." The others looked in disbelief, as Rei sputtered out something unintelligible. "Of course, that's my dimension," Gohan added to temper his statement and their reactions, "I've got no idea whether there is even _/one/_ god in this dimension." Gohan scratched himself behind his ear thinking it over. "I could go check if the Sanctuary exists here as well, or something similar," he contemplated thoughtfully.

The team, including the cats, now looked at him mouths agape. Here a fellow mortal was casually mentioning to go look up a god and say 'hi,' as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "Y-you can?" Minako wondered, getting her bearings straight. She was the least religious of them, and so she managed to pull herself together first. "That would be . . . awesome."

"Ok, then," Gohan said with a smile. "Let's go visit kami." Some of their jaws dropped even more. Gohan walked outside the small building, the team of heroines following him. Gohan closed his eyes and reached out with his senses to where the Sanctuary was located in his dimension. He didn't really sense anything, except a certain something, a lingering, a presence somehow blacked out. "All right," Gohan said, hovering into the air, "let's go."

"HOLD IT!!" Usagi screamed hysterically. Gohan looked down at her with a puzzled face. "Are you nuts!?" she asked, quite pissed of. "You're in luck nobody recognized you this afternoon, or the media would be out looking for you already: exclusive interview with hero Son Gohan." Usagi shuddered once at that, "You need to put on a costume, disguise yourself, like a proper super hero."

"I'm not a hero," Gohan answered looking somewhat taken aback.

"Nevertheless," Minako added to Gohan. "Usagi is right, you'd not only endanger your own privacy, but ours as well. You need to put on a costume."

"Yeah, Gohan," Ami added.

Gohan scratched his head, and asked, "Where do I find one?"

*****

The girls had scrambled for an hour, mixed existing costumes they could get their hands with cloth they sowed together. But eventually Gohan stood in a deep red and black outfit, that looked a lot like a ninja uniform. The suit went out over the back of his hands, giving him a dangerous look, and the black patches were such it gave somewhat the appearance of tiger stripes. He also wore a ninja's mask, leaving only his eyes visible, except that it stopped at his hair line, leaving his hair uncovered and visible for anyone. Gohan looked at himself in a mirror somewhat, and tried out the suit, moving around in it. He had been quite self-conscious about the hole disrobing in front of the girls thing, seeing Makoto's and Ami's reactions to him clothed. But they had seemed quite in control - of course they, and the others, were drooling whenever Gohan couldn't see. The girls had told him they had used some of their magical trinkets to make the costume sturdier than if it was just sowed together (also neatly covering up the fact that none of them really knew how to sow together a full costume, seeing as their costumes magically appeared and disappeared).

"That looks good," Luna commented looking at the newly clothed, and style-improved Gohan.

"Yeah, awesome!" Makoto added with a wide grin.

"Wow, scary and cool," was Minako's comment.

Usagi grinned widely, and called out enthusiastically, "Yeah, we're good!!"

"Now we only have to come up with a name," Ami said as Gohan turned around and looked at his friends.

"How about Superman!?" Usagi blurted out, and the entire group looked at her like she was insane. "Well, it's a classic."

"Ultra Ninja," Makoto suggested with a bright grin. "He fights for truth, justice, and the Japanese way."

Gohan outright glared at Makoto for that suggestion. "You make me sound like a washing detergent," he told her.

"And that sentence behind it," Artemis added with a growl. "It sounds bad enough with 'American way' behind for that comic book fool, this is just disgusting. There are more people in the world than just the Japanese, or American, or whatever."

She shrank back a little and said, "It was just a suggestion."

"Ninja V," Minako suggested suddenly with a bright smile.

"Oh, right," Rei commented with an annoyed face, "Minako and ego? Nooo, of course not. I only give other heroes my moniker, Sailor V, Ninja V!?"

"I can't help it that using V gives a whole air of being shrouded in mystery," Minako countered with a smug grin. 

"I like it," Gohan stated, making Minako's grin widen, and Rei's scowl deepen, "but I'm making a slight alteration for the better: Ninja Z." Minako's face fell just a little, and Rei stuck out her tongue at the blonde. "All right then, everybody transform, then we can go and see if we can find god." The team was still amazed at the casualness with which Gohan talked about a god, but they quickly performed their transformation dances. Being so close by, Gohan's eyes suddenly widened: for a brief few moments they had been naked, although their forms were mostly reduced to a silhouette by the light show. Gohan blushed, and was glad the mask covered his face so nobody saw. Once the five magical girls had finished their impressive transformations, the whole group, including the cats went outside. Then Gohan burst his energy around him, and he said, "Everybody get a little closer." They did as he told them, clustering close by Gohan, and then he expanded his ki flame around them. The girls swallowed, looking nervous, so did the two talking guards. "Ready? Okay then," Gohan said.

"WAIT!" Usagi screamed out. She had been bluffing about being cool with flying, now she was too scared to actually do it. She screamed out, too late though, and Gohan and the whole group lifted off the floor, not too fast, since Gohan was mindful of his friends not being able to handle the g-forces he could generate if he accelerated as fast as he really could. "AAAAAHHH!!!!" Usagi screeched out, much to the other Sailor Soldiers' dismay.

*****

Gohan suddenly slowed down, and carefully looked around himself. The Sailor Soldiers looked around with astonishment, taking in the beautiful vista of north-west Canada, close to Alaska. "Hmm," Gohan muttered as he carefully let his senses go outward. This was where the sanctuary was in his dimension, coordinates wise that is - climatologically or country wise it was completely different.

"Wow!" Minako muttered in awe, still incredibly impressed by the flight over here. She had felt free like a bird, on occasion fear gripped her heart, as if sitting in a roller coaster, and now the beautiful sight.

"A-are we th-there yet?" Usagi whimpered peeking out from behind her hands.

Rei sighed in irritation, "No, and don't be such a baby, do you see any of us being scared like that? Not even Luna and Artemis are afraid."

The cats were looking just astonished as the girls, but Luna had to say, once again, "I don't see how there could possibly be a kami - at least one you can just look up. I think we would have known, we've fought for the Earth, and for the Moon, and throughout our solar system. I think . . ."

"WE KNOW!" the girls called out in irritation at hearing the cat's complaint for the hundredth time.

Gohan had ignored their squabbles - lest he go insane, he thought - and told them, "These are the coordinates of the Sanctuary back home, but it isn't here." Gohan thought for a moment, before adding, "Now it doesn't have to be anywhere near here, but I'm willing to bet it's close by, somewhat on the roof of the world and all." The girls looked around, but other than the stunning vista they saw nothing, and Ami said so. Gohan nodded thoughtfully, and then grinned, "Oh, you're a tricky one. Hold on." Gohan then shot forward with a smile on his face, and then shot up, up in the air diagonally still shooting forward. He made a back to the left - the north - and shot onward. The Sailor Soldiers looked with wonder at the onrushing beauty, more and more trees covered in snow.

After another few minutes, and fifty or so kilometers Gohan slowed down again. He hung in the air, the girls looking expectantly at him. "Yep, right there," Gohan pointed after piercing the veil.

"Huh?" Makoto muttered, voicing all of the others' thoughts.

Gohan chuckled, and said, "Just wait." Again he shot forward, traveling another kilometer or so, flew a little upward and then gently lowered himself down. To the soldiers' surprise they heard Gohan step onto something they couldn't see. Then they felt the energy that was keeping them up fall away and they dropped down. They were about to scream out in fear and dropping to their deaths, when they too stepped onto something, and they moment they did, the illusion dropped away, and they gasped out.

There it was; this Earth's sanctuary. They were standing on the courtyard, and a yard it was, with beautiful flowers and trees, growing fruits. Amazing, although it seemed they were in open space it was pleasantly warm here, even though moments earlier it had been cold out. They were standing on a sandy path, that crossed with another sandy path in a ninety degree angle. That crossing path ran from the edge of the circular plain they were standing on, straight to an imposing building that was to their right. The building seemed like a cathedral, grand, imposing, mysterious, and yet there were pieces that were bulbous and seemed straight from the Middle East, then there were parts with gargoyles, and monsters and towers, partly Cambodian partly Scandinavian influences, it seemed as if every last religion, or culture of the Earth was somehow mixed in the towering building, that seemed as tall as some sky scrapers in New York. The building however, was not old and grey looking as some older buildings do today, it was white some places, had shining golden roofs, and silver parts elsewhere, some of it looked like modern day glass structures, then there were other bright colors mixed with less so - in short the temple looked as beautiful as it did imposing and mysterious.

The Sailor Soldiers looked at the building with mouths agape, so did the cats, and even Gohan, used to quite a lot, looked at it enraptured - this temple was far more imposing and awe inspiring than the temple at home. Thus captivated, none had noticed the old man casually walking to them, but they did now. The man - grey hair, wide and dignified, grey beard to mid chest, and wearing ethereal and officious looking robes - walked toward them using a cane that reached to his chin. The cane was made of silver - or at least a similar looking material - embroidered with gems and crystal. It gave it an air of royalty, or of power.

"Ah," the man started, taking a few final steps and stopping about a meter away from the astounded group. Casually he let his eyes wonder over the girls, drinking in their beauty, and he said, "You are a sight for sore eyes. Forgive me, I haven't had any company - certainly not feminine ones - in centuries. How beautiful, all of you." The girls blushed at the flattery, but still shocked into silence. "The Sailor Soldiers, and Son Gohan. High visitors to; I have been monitoring your exploits - most impressive, especially for ones as young such as you. My name is Sarudahiko."

Finally there was a reply, one from Rei. She took a step forward to the man, and as she knelt down in front of him, she said, "Sarudahiko-kami-sama, I am honored to be in the presence of the god of the Earth, guardian of the crossroads to heaven."

"Oh, please child, get up, I am not worthy of such praise," the god stated with a grimace, and grabbed Rei's left arm and pulled her back to her feet. She stayed standing, but kept her head inclined not daring to look at him.

"You know my name?" Gohan asked a little surprised.

Sarudahiko smiled as he looked at the boy, "Indeed, when you arrived here, I followed your path back, and made contact with my counterpart. Dende had some interesting stories to share, you are quite the hero, are you not, boy?"

"Nah," Gohan said giving a quick bow, "I'm no hero, I just did what I had to do." Sarudahiko gave a knowing smile, and nodded at Gohan.

"You really are a god?" Luna asked partially in disbelief, as Rei took several steps back in reverence.

"Very much so, Luna," the god answered. "I have been her now, uh . . . Mr. Janeda."

A golden haired spirit coalesced next to the god, his skin pure white. He took a bow, and asked, "Yes, lord kami."

"How long has it been exactly? Since I started here?" the god asked. "I apologize, but my memory is no longer what it's once been."

"3965 years, kami, do you wish to know the exact months and days?" Janeda asked.

"No, that's quite alright," Sarudahiko answered. "Janeda is the caretaker of this place, he's been her long before I was here. How long ago again?"

"Almost forty thousand years, kami," Janeda answered with a smile. God nodded once, gave a gesture with his hand. "I'm a genie, once I was trapped inside a cannister by an evil wizard, and people all over the universe had me fulfill all kinds of wishes. I had started to believe everyone was selfish, until I once reached this planet, and after a few masters one boy wished for my freedom. It left an impression on me, and he wandered the world, impressed with humanity, until finally a thousand years later I found this place. The kami then took me in, taught me, shared his wisdom, was my friend, after he died I decided to stay, and look after this place. I've been here ever since."

"How come we've never known about you?" Artemis asked the god with an edge to his voice.

The god answered, "Why would I give you knowledge of my existence? Did you ever seek me out? Did you ask for help? Besides, you didn't need me, when humanity doesn't need you, you let them solve their own problems."

"We were fighting against the Negaverse, they were evil! Our kingdom was destroyed, our people all but completely wiped out, and you tell me we didn't need help!?" Luna said, growling like the cat she was, some of the Sailor soldiers looking surprised at the outburst of the cats.

"I'm the god of the Earth, I guard this planet . . . not its moon," Sarudahiko stated powerfully, making the two cats jerk back some. "Tell me, Sailor Soldiers, you've had history in school. Does history record an alliance with a moon kingdom a thousand years ago, and a great fight?"

"No," Ami answered intrigued and the others shook their heads.

"What then?" the god prompted the brainiac.

"The Dark Ages, bows, crossbows, iron armor and swords, horse drawn carriages, feudal lords ruling over peasants, and that's the most advanced," Ami answered in a very abbreviated nutshell.

"Exactly," god replied in a powerful statement. "Do you think, if you're alliance with the Earth was as well forged as you think it was, the Negaverse would have stood a chance back then?" The cats stayed silent. "You see, while your people enjoyed luxury on the moon, and so did the Earth kingdom you were allied with, the rest of the world was starving because they had to pay ridiculous high taxes to their feudal lords. Now the Earth kingdom wasn't participating in the practices, but they sure didn't do anything against it, not even discouraged the practices. You definitely didn't, after all, all you saw was a nice tranquil world from where you sat, and as long as your Earth allies said nothing was the matter, you never came down to look either. Perhaps if prince Endymion ever came to power, but he would have been forced stuck on the moon with the queen, wouldn't he? And although a good man, he was naive and in love. You think those half starving people were in any position to fight on your behalf? Hell, how about know of your existence?" Sarudahiko shook his in sadness. "No, fighting to keep you in power would not have been good for the world I'm charged to protect. Best was to just let it play out, and decide what to do afterwards. And it worked out better than I dared hope." He then around the group of girls, and he said with a smile, "You were reborn, each and every one of you a better, and more knowledgeable person than you were back then, and this time you succeeded against the Negaverse, relatively quite easy I might say."

"You were the queen of a Moon Kingdom, Bunny?" Gohan asked surprised at that information.

"Yes, apparently," Usagi breathed in ever mounting irritation at Gohan's nickname for her. The other girls didn't really know what to say. Usagi then turned back to Sarudahiko, and said, "Easy? We all died!"

"But you beat them did you not, you destroyed them completely, finally, and all on your own, no legions of soldiers on your side like last time," he answered her with a smile. "And now you are here, revived."

"What about this time then, and the aliens that attacked just now!?" Artemis joined his old friend.

God actually chuckled, and said, "Do you see me? I'm an old man these days. Once I could have taken on the aliens, these days I'm but an old man. Gohan here, could beat me with ease. No, fighting is something I can no longer do, although I could still defeat you girls I'd say."

Everybody was silent, stunned at that revelation. Only Gohan wasn't, he just stood there, looking at the interaction between the guardian god of this Earth and the team of magical heroines. Then Ami, always the curious one, asked, "Are there any other gods? And where are they?"

"Ah," Sarudahiko said, looking up to think for a moment. "There were once. Once there was a god for practically everything. But they have all moved on, ascended, or died, and no one to replace them. They knew themselves, the more humanity's knowledge grew, the more they matured, the less the gods were needed, and so I alone remain, as a final guardian of this lovely planet."

"So the Shinto religion has it all right then, the others are wrong," Rei muttered, head downcast, not daring to look at the exalted being. "I don't know whether that makes me feel good or bad, now that the mystery is gone."

"Not really, I _/am/_ the _/only/_ god left, thus to a certain extent monotheists are very much correct," he told her with a smile, "The religious philosophers are very much correct: it's like the elephant and the blind men, they all have a piece of the puzzle, but non the entire elephant."

Rei looked at the mysteriously smiling god in astonishment, not really knowing what to make of that - or realizing she was 'showing him disrespect - and so she muttered, "Everybody's right except the atheists then."

The god's smile deepened, and he said, "Oh, I don't know about that. The definition of kami, or god, does always include beyond human reach or comprehension. Since I'm very much a human being, kept alive so long by the magic of this place, I'm not really a god using that definition, which means there is no god at all." Sarudahiko turned around, grinning deeply, as he saw and heard the gasps of everyone except Gohan, knowing he had thrown them for a loop they'd take ages to figure out. "Everyone's right," he added, made a dramatic pause, and finished with saying, "except fundamentalists of course, they're just plain crazy."

Sardahiko continued on his way, and told his aid, "Mr. Janeda, would you be so kind and give them a tour of the place, or just tell them which places are off limits."

"Of course, kami," the genie said, and then turned to the group and gestured toward the building. Still dazed by the enormous meeting, the Sailor Soldiers carefully went where the genie directed them. Gohan happily following, he couldn't wait to see the insides of the beautiful building.

*****

"That was so incredible," Makoto muttered, hours later, well after dark in Gohan's apartment. He had offered to buy them pizza, and so the five girls and two cats had stuffed themselves into the half-Saiyan's tiny apartment. "We just met a kami, guys!" she said amazement on her face. "And did you see the temple . . . incredible."

Ami nodded absentmindedly, taking in the parts of a technical marvel the likes of which she could only dream of. Her eyes shone with excitement as she carefully examined the interdimensional ship in the corner of the apartment, making sure not to touch anything. She was smart, but this was something she had never seen before. She couldn't begin to fathom what kind of horrible things she could do to it if she touched anything, so she kept her hands away from it. The doorbell rang, and Gohan opened it, taking the pizzas and paying for them. He returned to the room and started handing out the pizzas. He kept four full pizzas for himself, and despite knowing, the girls watched in amazement as the Saiyan started scarfing them down. "What?" he asked mouth half full as he saw their stairs.

"Never mind," Minako quickly said, and started to eat half of the pizza she was sharing with Makoto.

"Some god," Artemis muttered as he and Luna started on the pizza Gohan had put open on the ground.

"He was awe inspiring," Rei whispered, still dazed by the surreal experience and took a gentle bite from her pizza she was sharing with Ami.

Usagi, well away with eating her own pizza, said, "He was so cool, did you guys see how he knew all of us. A god considers us heroines."

Ami finally tore herself away from the interdimensional ship, and said, "The readings I took are going to be a fascinating study." She then took her first bite from the pizza.

Gohan stopped eating for a moment, three quarters of the way through his second pizza, and said, "Providing he let you keep any of the readings."

Ami looked up at him startled, never considering that possibility, "Providing that, yes."


	7. Chapter 7: A New Martial Arts School

_Chapter 7: A New Martial Arts School_

Meanwhile back in the Dragonball dimension . . .

The cafe was relatively crowded, and with the four of them sitting in the back that worked to their favor, for no one would really overhear. "Okay, Yamcha, tell us, why did you ask us here?" Krillin asked somewhat annoyed. Number 18 had been pretty pissed he had gone to meet his friends, and Krillin was equally pissed as he remembered what 18 had been wearing and what she had been planning for the afternoon. Of course she had been placated somewhat when he give her his ATM card, and told she could go shopping - he really needed to make some more money somehow he thought, shuddering at the possibility of how much 18 would use up.

"Yeah," Chaozu added, and Tien nodded in agreement. "Why _/did/_ you call us here?"

"I've got an idea! A fantastic one!" Yamcha said with a bright smile, grinning at them.

After a moments silence, Tien grumbled, "Well, what is it!?"

"We start a Martial Arts school," Yamcha replied with a triumphant grin. The three warriors looked at him somewhat dubiously. "Come on, guys, think about it. Hardly anyone but us knows ki control, and those that do can't go anywhere _/near/_ our mastery of it, it's time we passed on our knowledge. After all, none of us will live forever, one day we'll be old and grey and die, and who will protect this world then if another Freeza, or Cell comes along, huh? Plus, if we lower our prices below the Satan school, do some commercials then we'll get some tough fighters who can't afford the hack, and when they beat the Satan students with ease, everyone will come to our school; we'll preserve our abilities for future generations _/and/_ make a bundle in the process. We start with two dojos, across the city, two senseis per dojo at first."

"Hmm," Krillin stated thinking out loud. "You know Yamcha, you might actually be onto something, especially if we get Bulma to install us some gravity plating, for a small piece of the profits, we could actually, _/truly/_ train people."

Tien and Chaozu seemed to start to like the idea. "Great idea!" Yamcha said with a grin, before adding, "Then when some of our students are masters themselves they can branch out to other city's and start their dojo, thus turning this into an actual school. He - or she - will get to keep most of the profits, but a part has to go to the main branch, namely us."

"I'm in," Tien answered with a slight smile. He usually stayed in the wilderness constantly training, but it seemed he could be training now as well, while giving lessons. Not to mention access to gravity plating, he had found increasing his strength from a Super Human onward without multiple times Earth's gravity was difficult - it was extremely hard to find a way to make his body strain.

"So am I, although I'd have confer with 18 _/and/_ find a way to keep my training with Vegeta a possibility without eating up even more of my life," Krillin said thoughtfully.

"That leaves only one thing: what are we going to call it?" Chaozu asked with curiosity and excitement.

"The Yamcha Style School of Martial Arts," Yamcha answered, and the other three looked at him with deadly stares. "Just kidding guys, I don't really have a name yet."

"The Turtle Style School of Martial Arts," Krillin answered with certainty. "Honor the master who trained the greatest hero this world had."

The four friends looked at each other, and then grinned, remembering their deceased friend, Son Goku, then they nodded. "All right, Krillin, you hurry up with 18, so we can bring the idea to the head of Capsule Corp," Yamcha grinned deeply.

*****

"NOO!" 18 screamed walking out of Krillin's small house and smashed the door behind her. The two were standing outside in the suburb of the city now, and 18 didn't seem to care. "You're already so often away training with that _/monkey/_. Now instead of five days a week more than half the day, you'll be out till late at night, and possibly every day! How the hell am I supposed to see you, I already have an hour flight from my brother's cabin in the woods here, we can't see each other every day already, we'll never have time for each other!"

"18," Krillin said gently, taking on of her hands, "I might be home a little less often, but so does every other guy or girl out there that has a full time job. I'll convince Vegeta to come to the dojo, instead of I to his home, perhaps I can convince him even to be a sensei, that way we can train in between classes." 18 looked annoyed, but Krillin hadn't let her down yet, and he was right about the full time job, and she knew he had expenses to pay for his house, and she remembered the balance on his ATM while she had been shopping, which wasn't that much. She grumbled childishly, taking her arm away and folding her arms across her chest, giving her blessing silently but not liking it. "As for not seeing is each other every day, there's a solution to that: move in with me."

18's arms dropped away from her chest, and she turned to fully regard the human she had fallen in love with, her eyes in shock. "Are you serious?"

"Deadly," was Krillin's answer. 18 kept regarding him, her mind going over the implications, the pros and the cons. *What cons?* she thought, as she felt her artificial heart thumb with excitement. Suddenly she picked the smaller man up to head level, and then kissed him ferociously. She broke the kiss about a minute later, holding a breathless ex-monk. "I'll take that as a 'yes'," Krillin said with a grin.

"You better, and we better go out dancing tonight, I didn't buy that dress for nothing," 18 told him with an angry growl, but Krillin could hear the happiness buried in there, not to mention her sparkling eyes. He also remembered seeing the dress: short, and sexy as hell, including matching pumps - not to mention his delight when he noticed the price tag still on it, and the huge discount - and that other piece of clothing was probably now hanging in the bedroom, or she was still wearing it underneath her jeans, and shirt. That thought made him shudder with excitement, and 18 noticed. The sexy smile that came in response to that, made him light up with desire, "and after that; we still haven't use what wearing underneath properly."

Krillin swallowed feeling a rise somewhere else, kissed 18 quickly but deeply, and then told her, "We're going out, don't worry about that. Now I have to go make a business deal between the guys and Capsule Corp."

"Be back soon," 18 told him darkly, and they kissed again, before Krillin blasted off.

*****

The four of them found Bulma hard at work on the next full-size, people carrying prototype of the interdimensional ship in Capsule Corp Headquarters' lab. Vegeta - who had let them in - was standing next to them, growing more annoyed by the moment. The sounds of the woman tinkering away echoed through the great hall, and she would not come out from under the machinery. Even after Yamcha had called her name a few times.

"WOMAN!" Vegeta finally bellowed out.

"WHAT!?" Bulma screeched as she pushed herself from under the machinery.

"Business, apparently," Vegeta said indicating the four. Bulma blinked and looked at the four entrepreneurs.

"Huh?" Bulma said, looking at the four of them a little confused, what would they want for 'business'.

Yamcha grinned, gestured with his arms, spreading out gently indicating a sigh, and said, "How does a Turtle Style School of Martial Art dojo in about every city in the country within ten to twenty years followed by, 'Powered by Capsule Corp Gravity Gym' sound to you?"

Bulma blinked twice, her mind unraveling all the information and getting what they wanted to do. She sat up, then stood up, with wide sparkling eyes. "Patent the artificial gravity, a few years for full deployment, then other companies get to join on the artificial gravity market healthy competition and all . . . personal gyms, space ships, space colonies, that sounds like money; lots of it."

*****

Back in the Sailor Moon dimension

Several hundred light years away from Earth

The ship was in orbit around the planet below, and the shuttle had just docked into its shuttle bay. Nervously Dimwu and Jarbal had gone through the ship, to the bridge. Their medical technology had healed them up by now, now all they had to worry about was their leader. Aliens in all shapes and sizes were in the ship as they went on their way.

Finally they reached the bridge, and they looked nervously at the large throne-like central chair. Next to the chair - which was turned with its back toward them - a alien stood, smiling at the two. He had dark yellow skin, which shone with some unholy energy. His eyes were pitch black, and two rows of small, nubby, horns lined his bald head; he too wore a similar but more elaborate uniform than the two who had arrived. A rumbling voice came from the central chair, asking, "Have you found it?"

"Yes, sir . . ." Dimwu answered nervously. "That is, we don't have it with us, we know it's there, we ran into a little snag."

"Snag?" the yellow alien asked with squeaky, evil voice.

Jarbal swallowed, and answered, "Yes, Ridish, there was a warrior, a fighter. He was huge, twice as big as I am, and twice as fast and twice as strong, possibly even more so." Jarbal swallowed nervously, and Dimwu looked up at Jarbal, disbelieving its lies, but not correcting him. "Perhaps this isn't worth the effort."

The command chair suddenly swivelled around, revealing a humanoid bull. It had claws instead of hoofs for hands and unlike the others he was brown. Unlike the others, he was not in a uniform, his clothes were brown, and whit. His skin was brown as well, but very dark. His horns were intimidating, and curled dangerously and largely. "We will get it, whatever the cost. Now, tell me, how strong was this . . . fighter?"

"He was incredibly powerful," Jarbal stated nervously, trying to placate his leader.

"Really? Did you try to kill him? The scanners picked up a massive explosion," the bull thundered.

Dimwu caved, "It's his fault! He let himself get dragged away. When he couldn't beat the fighter, he tried to blow up the whole city."

The bull growled, worse than a bear, worse than a lion, "I expressly forbade the wholesale destruction of cities!"

Jarbal jittered, backing back up, "I didn't destroy anything, the fighter squatted the ball aside like it was nothing." Faster than hardly anyone present could follow the bull had got up reached out and snapped Jarbal's neck like it was nothing. The blue alien dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

"Ridish, I'm still stuck here with those fools and their diplomatic talk," the bull-like alien said in a low voice, shaking his head in irritation. "Accompany Dimwu back to the planet, find this fighter, and destroy him, without harming the interdimensional technology. You do, I don't care how far back we go, you're fate will be that of Jarbal."

Ridish answered a positive, bowed and started toward the shuttle deck. "Do I have to?" Dimwu whimpered in fear and shock over his dead friend. The others paid him no heed, Ridish simply pulled him along, dragging him toward the shuttle craft.


	8. Chapter 8: The Girl that Fell from the S...

_Chapter 8: The Girl that Fell from the Sky_

The demon that was attacking the audience of the Snowwhite play had free rain. Gohan had watched his friends, the Sailor Soldiers trapped in costumes on the stage fall over and struggling. Time to help. Quickly he snuck out of the auditorium, ran to where he hung up his coat and back pack and took the pack. He then quickly ran into the bathroom across the hall. A rapid check confirmed no one was present, and then he went into a cubicle, closing the lid. He opened his bag, and pulled out his costume. He kicked off his shoes, then started pulling down his pants rapidly. When it was off he grabbed the pants of his costume, and in need of time he rapidly pushed his foot down . . . and then there was a rip.

Stricken Gohan pulled the garment back down, and then held it up. There was a large tear in the pants. "Oh, no," Gohan muttered; the pants were not designed to be pulled on at super speeds. *Hell,* Gohan thought in irritation, *then I'll do this without the costume.* He quickly pulled his normal pants back on, making sure not to rip these pants, which meant he was doing it just as fast as any other boy on the planet. He quickly ran out the bathroom, and back into the theater room, and found the demon destroyed and his friends in their familiar micro skirts were just leaving. Gohan sighed in defeat, and went back to retrieve his costume.

Fifteen minutes later, Gohan and his friends were walking slowly toward Rei's grandfather's temple. "So why didn't you help?" Usagi asked bluntly. Gohan gave an annoyed sound, and looked away in embarrassment. "Well?" she prompted.

Gohan sighed, and said, "Can't tell you until we get to the temple." The girls looked at him, and he hung his head down in shame. Then he looked up and said, "You can't start relying on me you know, I'm leaving once the ship is repaired, or Bulma sends the new one."

Fifteen minutes later the group was inside a building of the temple, and they all looked expectantly at Gohan. He lifted his costume from his bag, disentangled the pants, and then held it up. Everybody looked at the giant rips in the right leg. "Cloth can't handle super speed changing," Gohan muttered embarrassedly. The girls blinked their eyes a few times, and then laughed hard.

They quickly stopped though, it wasn't that funny. "So how does Superman do it?" Rei asked curiously. "Did they explain it in the comics?"

"He has his costume on underneath his clothes," Usagi said brightly, giving a dreamy look.

Gohan looked at her, so did the others, and then he groaned, "I should have known." Then he went into deep thought, remembering once again what the girls had told him a few days earlier. Makoto had thought that Seijuurou was the Knight of the Moonlight, Gohan had told her he wasn't explaining his ki sense again, but she hadn't listened. He had been tinkering with the interdimensional ship when she and the others had been attacked by another demon, and how they had seen two aliens control them; a boy and a girl. To Gohan that meant he knew certain who the two aliens were; Seijuurou and Natsumi. But despite his earlier interference, and now that his identity was revealed the willingness to help out with even the weaker foes - which all seemed to be demons - he was reluctant to help out with the two aliens. For one thing, they hadn't felt 'evil' or particularly malicious to Gohan; not to his sense of ki, nor to his limited Saiyan telepathic and empathic abilities. For another, there was still the issue of simply taking over and doing all the work for his friends, not allowing them to grow stronger and better and since he wasn't staying for very long . . . Finally, no matter how certain Gohan was, until he met the aliens face to face, he couldn't be _/absolutely/_ certain it were Seijuurou and Natsumi, although tonight's attack at the theater, them close by although not transformed into the aliens removed any doubt in Gohan's mind, he couldn't falsely accuse the two, especially without any evidence. He decided he would go have to have a talk with them soon, lay the cards on the table so to speak, and figure things out.

After a short discussion on the still unknown identity of the Knight of the Moonlight, the girls had all returned home.

*****

A few days later Gohan found himself in detention, along with Usagi and Natsumi. The teacher had gone ballistic without any reason Gohan could have seen, and had sent all three of them to detention for transgressions that were barely that. Said teacher gave them some problems on a paper to solve, and then just left. Usagi and Natsumi looked at the problems like they were super complicated multi-dimensional equations, both of them tired, Natsumi the most so, and Gohan felt it. Her ki was weak, and almost non-existent, he had sensed the same things from Seijuurou, and it had thrown him for a loop; he didn't know whether the two were really evil, or just desperate for survival, and this latest tidbit only puzzled the half-Saiyan even more. Gohan shrugged, deciding to keep observing for now, he went to work on his allotted problems.

He was finished within ten minutes, and then he leaned back, balancing the stair on its hind legs, and placed his feet on the table. Then he casually folded his hands behind the back of his head, and announced casually, "Finished." Both Usagi and Natsumi turned to look at him with daggers in their eyes, Gohan grinned at them. He quickly got bored, even the two girls' bickering over who got Mamoru and their decision to have a contest over who got him: whoever finished the problems first, couldn't keep him entertained. He sat his chair back down, put his hands on the desk and rested his head on it. Moments later he was asleep.

Usagi was putting all her effort into finishing the problems first, her tongue was hanging out her lips in concentration. Natsumi however couldn't even begin with the questions. She was tired and looked over at Usagi, and got an idea. If she stole some of Usagi's energy she could start. So she slowly sneaked over, ready to grab and drain her.

"Shoot," Usagi said in irritation as the gum she was using to diligently gum away a bad answer jumped out of her hands and dropped to the floor. She bend over, and Natsumi's grab went wide. The girl crashed into the desk and fell to the floor. Usagi looked over at the downed girl, and asked innocently, "What are you doing?"

"Exercising," Natsumi quickly made up, and made a few exercise motions on the floor. "Will make sure I'm relaxed, and so I will beat you easily."

"You will lose doing nothing," Usagi replied but got a little worried, so she started working on the questions even harder. It was good thing Gohan was hunched over his work, or she'd try to sneak a peek.

Natsumi made a few more motions, and then got up, and slowly approached the oblivious blonde sneakily. Suddenly Usagi gave a quick yawn, and stretched out, her pencil slamming into Natsumi's nose and the girl staggered back, and quickly turned it into an exercising routine. Usagi scratched herself behind her neck, thinking about the other girl's odd behavior, and then quickly continued working.

After almost an hour she finally looked back up again, seeing as she had only one problem left to go. She looked over at the once again seating Natsumi, who had given up on her plan. "Only one question more to go," Usagi said with a grin, and got up, checking out what Natsumi had done; which was nothing at all, she still hadn't started. "You haven't even started yet!" Usagi exclaimed with a triumphant smile. "Would you like me to help you?" Usagi asked, both teasing and serious at the same time.

"Just because I haven't started yet, doesn't mean I won't beat you. I was just giving you a head start," Natsumi bit back hatefully.

"Oh, really?" Usagi asked confident she had Natsumi beat.

"Really," Natsumi returned, and suddenly got an idea. "I'll prove it to you, you go to sleep for ten seconds, and I'll show you."

Usagi snorted, and then side, "Fine, ten seconds." Usagi sat down in her chair, and promptly went to sleep.

Natsumi looked with giant eyes of triumph at the sleeping girl, and transformed into her alien alter ego Ann. She went over, placed her hands on the blonde, and sucked the girl's life force right out. "Yes," she whispered feeling herself getting stronger, and then stopped when Usagi's energy was growing low. Natsumi wasn't fully charged up yet, and looked over at the sleeping Gohan. She grinned and placed her hands on his shoulders, and started sucking his energy. She gasped as her hands burned, and she took two steps back, leaning on a desk behind him. She was shocked, she had never considered the possibility someone could have that much energy. She was more than charged up, she was weak again because she had taken too much energy for her to handle in that very short moment, and she knew for a fact she had hardly taken a fraction of the boy's energy. Her painful burning hands slowly started aching less, and Gohan stirred once, but kept on sleeping.

Grinning after all, knowing she had enough energy to do the problems, and Usagi now too tired to wake up unless disturbed, Ann went to her place ready to win the contest, ready to transform back. Just then, with a loud crash a demon appeared outside the window, and it growled. Instantly Usagi and Gohan woke up, looking surprised at the monster. A battle yell from what had to be the Sailor Soldiers and a well aimed attack, sent the Cardian back down to ground level. The Sailor Soldiers appeared to be only mildly successful fighting off the demon, holding him in place. Ail - also known as Seijuurou, the alien - appeared on the scene, and looked at the demon in irritation. Telepathically he explained to Ann he couldn't control it, and she couldn't believe it. The girl quickly jumped out the window, and she and her brother flew up to roof of the school.

To Gohan that settled it, he had now seen and felt the aliens, and they felt exactly like Seijuurou and Natsumi. "Damn," Gohan said, looking at the Sailor Soldiers fighting the demon. "I've got to, you know," Gohan told Usagi and quickly bounded out the room.

Usagi nodded, and then her cat Luna who had spotted her from the ground, climbed through the shattered window into the classroom. "Quickly, Usagi, you must transform," Luna told the blonde.

"Uh . . . oh, right," Usagi replied groggily - the energy drain was taking its toll. She got out her pendant and started the transformation dance.

*****

Gohan quickly ran through the corridors, nobody around, he started unbuttoning his shirt, and the pulled it open, revealing the specialized ninja outfit. He quickly added the tie, and threw them behind a vending machine he ran past. He then opened his pants, and started pulling them down, but instead of going smooth, the pants kept clinging to his costume's pants beneath them. "Damn it," he muttered, pulling and prodding, slowing his running. He made a hop, trying to pull the pants down, tried to run again. He got entangled and then he dropped over, face first onto the floor. "Auw," he said, getting irritated. "Come on, loosen." He yanked and yanked, and finally, after kicking his shoes off the pants came free. He pulled his shoes back on, and ran.

"Why did I have to put my coat this far away?" he asked himself. Finally he reached the coat rack, and he produced his mask from its inner pocket and put it on.

*****

The demon backhanded Rei off of it, and it freed it up. Sailor Moon looked at it, and pulled out her magic scepter, ready to defeat the monster. "Oh, my," she muttered as she was attacked by a wave of dizziness, and she staggered forward. The demon crowed in satisfaction and quickly moved over and grabbed the super heroine, intent to finish her off. Sailor Moon struggled, but with her energy down, the grip felt like iron. "Help!" Sailor Moon screamed, and then suddenly the grip was gone, a white rose flew into the opening the demon had vacated.

Sailor Moon blinked and saw Ninja Z floating a few centimeters above ground, looking down at her. "You alright Sailor Moon?" Ninja Z asked concerned, of his head only his eyes and hair was visible, and his eyes radiated concern. Sailor Moon blinked, seeing the demon tumble through the air still and only slowly regain control and look around to see what had happened.

"I'm fine," she answered, and then Ninja Z nodded. The red-and-black-clad ninja slowly turned around and regarded the demon with cold angry eyes. Sailor Moon looked around, seeing the rose, and then spotting the Knight of the Moonlight, who seemed somewhat embarrassed at his miss. The other sailor suited warriors looked on in triumph at the ease with with Ninja Z had removed the demon from their leader, while Ail and Ann up on the roof looked on in surprising disbelief.

"That's it," Ninja Z growled and rapidly moved over to the demon. "Come on," Gohan said flaring his energy, "you want energy don't you?"

The red-and-blue, horned monster zeroed in on Ninja Z and growled in anticipation. It's green tentacles shot out and wrapped themselves around Ninja Z's waist. Then it moved forward and grabbed Ninja Z's shoulders with its claws.

"Like that, huh?" Ninja Z sneered with anger. "Want more?" Promptly Ninja Z flared his energy, making it bound visibly around his body. The demon growled with satisfaction. "How about enough to level the city?" Ninja Z asked, and output even more energy. The beast once again made its approval audible. "How about the continent?" Ninja Z asked, and his chi-flame burst into existence, as the girls, one young man, and the two aliens watched enraptured. The demon suddenly didn't look so comfortable anymore, and it tried to disentangle itself. "Half the planet?" Ninja Z asked and his flame became more intense, rapidly grabbing the demon's wrists, making it impossible for it to move away.

The demon shook its head desperately, making protesting noises. "No, please," was one utterance that the demon's limited to non-existent vocal abilities managed with difficulty. The demon's body slowly started to glow.

"Don't be shy, not now," Ninja Z told it. His voice was cold and calculating as he raised his energy. "Here, have enough to obliterate the planet," Ninja Z added and made his ki flame flare with energy. The thing shook his head with all its defiance, and it screamed out in pain, as his body started more and more to glow. Suddenly Ninja Z let go, formed a ki shield around the demon, and then with a vicious kick sent the encased demon up into space. The demon raced, quickly hurtling past the moon, and then there was blinding flash. Everybody present shielded their eyes, and then they looked up to see a mighty shockwave of energy pass through space, and then it was gone. Slowly Ninja Z turned his enraged eyes toward Ail and Ann, and they quickly left the roof, going into the school building.

Inside, Ann told her brother, "I'll have to get to class quickly, before Usagi suspects something. Ail, I don't think that blast last time coinciding with the attack of those aliens was from an asteroid, it came from the fighters. Gohan is one of them, he's Ninja Z, you should have felt his power Ail, it's incredible." Ail nodded slightly.

By the time Ann was back in the classroom, a disheveled Gohan was sitting at the table, as if he had dressed very quickly. Usagi too was present, grabbing a pen and triumphantly finishing the last question.

*****

In the next few days Seijuurou and Natsumi were absent from school, and so Gohan couldn't talk with them. He had been partially avoiding the Sailor Soldiers, but he still spent time with Umino and Naru. The problem was, that Gohan could find the aliens using his sixth sense, but the problem was his non-interfering. He remembered back to the latest demon attack, how he had let his anger over tripping cloud his judgement. When he looked back at the event, he was certain that his friends could have beaten it most likely, which meant he already was starting to take over their duties. Gohan was slowly walking along the streets of Tokyo in the general direction of the shop area; he needed a part they should have here for the interdimensional ship. After a while, halfway to the store, he felt an odd disturbance. He debated with himself for a short moment, and then rapidly walked into an alley in the direction of the disturbance.

He went right once, then left, and stood still at the sight. There energy crackled, about one meter fifty above ground, a mist of energy swirled, and became more and more pronounced. Gohan blinked in astonishment, and then suddenly, a figure came shooting from the disturbance, which stopped producing visible light immediately thereafter. Flabbergasted, Gohan was completely incapable of getting out of the way of the figure, which squarely collided with his chest. Gohan went down, and with two oofs, one from both persons they landed horizontally. The girl - for that was what the figure was - lay on top of Gohan, her left leg right from Gohan, her right in between his legs. Gohan's right leg was between hers, and as she shook her head lightly to clear it, she backed up against his leg. Gohan watched the girl shake her head, and then open her bright, brilliant, and sad eyes. She was beautiful, incredibly so; the pink hair - very rare - gave her an alluring exotic look unmatched by any girl Gohan had ever seen. Instantly he wanted to comfort the girl that was so obviously in pain. Gohan dimly recognized that she was wearing a Sailor Soldier outfit; skimpy, tight, naked legs, ultra short skirt. Her soft but strong body pressed completely against him. Her breasts, which had only just started to grow, pressed into his chest just below his chin. To his extreme embarrassment Gohan felt himself grow erect.

The pink-haired girl for one had been completely disoriented at her sudden appearance, collision and fall. She had shaken her head, and then gently raised upper torso a little, pushing up with her arms and hands. Her right hand was just next to Gohan's head, her left was holding onto his upper right arm. Once she blinked a few times, she looked down in Gohan's face, and became aware of his dark eyes looking up at her. She felt the muscles in his arm, and along his body, and it felt good, as their eyes locked together, each just staring surprised into each other's eyes. *Oh, my, he's got some muscles,* she fleetingly thought, and then the girl's eyes widened as she felt something grow. At the same time an unfamiliar warmth spread through her young body, and she felt her nipples start to harden. "Uh, sorry," she muttered out rapidly and pushed herself off of him, blushing deeply. "Please, just forget I was here," she added as Gohan smoothly stood up from the ground. "Right, bye," she said, and then quickly ran away.

As she ran away she thought, *Kami, he felt good against me, and he looks so . . . stop it, Usagi! Focus! You have a mission! You have a world to save! No time drooling over boys!* Properly chastised she went into a dead run, hoping she had enough time.

Meanwhile, Gohan was still standing there, embarrassed about his body's reaction. "Wow," he whispered completely floored. Slowly he turned toward the direction of the story, and started walking. "Wow, she was so hot," he muttered, and blushed. *You shouldn't think that . . . and why the hell not?* He grinned as he proceeded to imprint the girl's looks and appearance into his mind. "What the hell was she doing in a Sailor Soldier outfit?" he muttered softly.

*****

A little over a half hour later Gohan arrived back at his apartment having bought the part. He stood on top of the metal chairs leading right to his second story front door. He noticed his door wasn't locked when put his key inside. For a moment he wondered if he forgot to do it, but quickly dismissed it. He extended his senses fully since his collision with the mysterious girl dressed like a Sailor Soldier. He had been too preoccupied with her vision to fully examine the rest of her, so when he felt a presence, he didn't recognize her. He opened his door, took a step inside, and looked at his guest sitting on his small couch, which filled almost a quarter of his entire room. The girl - about fourteen years old - looked at the door expectantly, and her eyes widened in recognition.

"You," the two stated at exactly the same time, dumbfounded for a moment.

*Stupid, stupid, Usagi!* Usagi admonished herself, as she watched Gohan casually walk into his apartment and settling in without fear. *Ooh, what fantastic muscles! You're only here looking for the most powerful guy, and thirteen-year-old on the planet! Stupid!*

Gohan finished putting his purchase away, and sat down in a chair, looking into the horrified, and hollow eyes of the beautiful girl in front of him. "So, tell me your name, and I'll tell you mine, but I think you already know mine," Gohan prompted smiling at her.

Finally prompted out of her stupor, Usagi got up, and took a deep bow, saying, "Son Gohan-sama, my name is Chiba Usagi, princess of the . . ."

"Hey, hold on," Gohan interrupted, almost panicking. He had gotten up, and shook his hands from left to right to ward off the praise. "First straighten up," he said, and she did. "I am not a god, nor am I some exalted priest, ok, I don't deserve such praise."

It took all of Usagi's self-control not to blush deeply. The stories she had heard tell of the boy in front of her, had been legendary, myth, his power unimaginable, her parents and friends had talked about him like he was god who had ordained to walk amongst mortals for a short while. She was screwing up, giving Gohan hints of his future he shouldn't have. She remembered another thing from the stories, and she said, "But you are a prince, are you not?"

Gohan groaned, and said, "Just don't call me that."

"Ok," Usagi said, a little confused, but Gohan sat back down relieved it seemed. "This may sound strange," Usagi continued, sitting back down herself, "but I'm from the future."

Gohan gave a quiet nod, starting to understand the horror in the girl's eyes, they were filled with even greater despair than Trunks' had been. "I figured as much, a friend of mine returned from the future to warn us of threat that was coming. I know an Usagi here, and she too wears an outfit like that . . ."

Involuntarily Usagi grabbed her tiara and felt it for a while, then said, "She is my mother. They call me Chibi-Usa." Gohan gave a small smile at the insulting term, but she didn't seem to be very insulted by it.

"So, Little Bunny, what's your story?" Gohan said, and the girl smiled for the first time. She couldn't help it, the way he said it, with a twinkle in his eyes, and some form of deep rooted respect that she didn't think she deserved from someone nothing short of a god warmed her right up, and it sounded so much more cuter than Chibi-Usa, even though she enjoyed having that name for a long time now.

"You weren't supposed . . ." Usagi shook her head. Gohan watched her do it, watched her mumble something under her breath, which sounded suspiciously like, 'stop thinking like that.' Usagi looked back up, and said, "The aliens came here because of you. They detected your inter-dimensional trips, the tear in the fabric of the universe, and they detected your power. They came to find the ship." She watched Gohan's smile falter, and horror replaced it.

"Go on," Gohan said grimly.

"Others will follow them," Usagi continued, swallowing away the lump she felt forming in her throat as she remembered her past. "Aliens with vast powers, others with vast armies, either because they too detected the intrusion, or because they have beef with those who did. I was fighting when I was five years old, against beings with powers far in excess of mine, or against overwhelming odds. Sometimes we sent me, or somebody else back in time to improve our chances of success with future knowledge on how to beat them. Then there came an ecological disaster, prompted by one of the alien's attacks. The world starting freezing over, and we placed ourselves and almost the entire world in cryo-stasis."

She halted her story, mustering strength for the rest of the tale, and watching Gohan's reaction for a few moments. "When we woke ourselves up, a thousand years later, Earth was a wasteland. For a thousand years, one battle after another was fought right here. The first of them over your technology, then it became a strategic fortress for a war between to galactic super powers, prompted because of Earths position, it's inhospitable climate, and the knowledge of what the previous battles here had been fought over. Near the end of our thousand-year sleep, the reasons for needing Earth, were mythological, religious, prestige. The reason why Earth was so important to all the different factions and armies had been lost in time, the earlier battles reduced to myth and legend, but still wars were fought over it. Of the six billion that went to sleep, no more than five hundred million woke up, another hundred million died because of complications sustained in the first few weeks after our awakening."

Again she halted her story, wiping a way a few tears, and then continued, "We fought, long and hard for our world. There were four different enemies, each fighting each other as they fought us. Two hundred million more died in the war that ensued. Finally we threw them off, all of them, but none of our enemies were as powerful as those waged their wars on Earth in the millennium before - if we'd only known that. It was decided the world, although salvageable, was too destroyed, even our restorative powers couldn't restore all of it, and it certainly could not bring back all those billions who had died - so, with blessing of Sailor Pluto, the Sailor Soldier of time, me and Sailor Saturn were sent back in time to make sure the ecological disaster never happened - we succeeded. But that didn't stop all the others from coming to Earth. We fought them, one by one, each becoming stronger after another. I've seen my mother, father and assorted friends die now a dozen times over and more. Every time we sent someone back in time to rectify their deaths, give them advanced knowledge on our enemies weaknesses and exploit that. Eventually there came enemies that were so powerful even their weaknesses were too powerful for us to overcome"

"That's basically my life, we're so much alike, you and I," Gohan said grimly, picturing the horror of what she had just painted. He saw her looking at him, with hunched up eyebrows, and tears filling her eyes. "I half Saiyan, half human, my father is Saiyan, they were a race of ruthless warriors who destroyed all intelligent life on planets in order to sell them to the highest bidder. My father was supposed to destroy Earth, but he fell on his head and forgot who he was. When I was four my father's brother, Radditz, came to the Earth to check up on him. My father died killing his brother in order to protect me, but two other remaining Saiyan's had heard, and they were coming as well. The next year I trained so I could face them, I tried." He looked up at the pink-haired Usagi, and watched her look at him silently. He walked over to the couch and sat down next to her, close enough their knees touched. He gave her a smile, she smiled back and he continued telling her, of Vegeta, of his failure to overcome his fear then, of the Dragonballs, the trip to Namek, Freeza, Cell - Littica's arrival, his father's second and permanent death - Android 25, Brolli, and finally Bojack.

"We _/are/_ very much alike, aren't we?" Usagi told him with a weak smile. He gave in to the urge to sling his arm around her shoulders, and she put let herself fall against him. "But where you succeeded, I failed. You're a hero." Usagi squinted her eyes shut, and the memories of the hours leading up to her transport through time.

_[The tentacle shot out, and wrapped itself around the Sailor Moon's neck. With a yank, her neck broke, and she was dumped onto the floor. "USAGI!" Prince Endymion screamed out in grief, just before he was hit by an explosive ball of energy that splattered his remains across the battle field._

_"Momma!! DAD!!" Usagi screamed out, and Venus grabbed her around her waist, and pulled her back, instead of letting her continue the urge to go to her parents and certain death. The vaguely humanoid monster - easily the size of a house, with tentacles sprouting from its back and chest - easily bashed an apartment building to rubble. Around him, on foot or in various dangerous vehicles his army of aliens, all in excess of two meters tall, fired guns or energy blasts from their bare hands. Jupiter went down in one of them. The alien commander ordered something in an alien tongue, and suddenly the army started lifting high into the air, either under their own power, or in vehicles._

_With tears in her eyes, she watched the monster charges two very large balls of energy in his hands, and then brought them together, laughing. "Oh, my god!" Neptune suddenly called out, understanding. "Teleport now, he's going to destroy the whole city!"_

_Venus, Chibi-Moon, Pluto, and Neptune managed to do exactly that, just in time. They reappeared on top of the Mount Fuji volcano, which was nothing but a small hill and watched in horror as Tokyo - which was a strange mix of the old Tokyo and the futuristic Crystal Tokyo, most notably the palace - was engulfed in a giant fireball and mushroom cloud_.__

_"Haruka," Neptune muttered with tears in her eyes as she sagged to her knees._

_The alien commander appeared lazily from the inferno, and he did not seem pleased. "He figured it ou_t,_" Venus said, as she saw the alien bellow his new orders. She violently stuffed away her feelings, and she commanded, "We need to go now."]_

"I'm not a hero," Gohan said, and it jolted Usagi from her memories. "I'm just born with all this power, nothing heroic about it," he continued, and Usagi looked up into his eyes. "Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, my father and Piccolo were the true heroes. They fought, and trained against overwhelming odds for every little bit of power they had. The soldiers who died taking a futile, but heroic stance against Cell were heroes, and despite the lies, and cheating Satan and his students were heroes trying to take on Cell. Policemen, and firemen saving people, going into burning buildings, or standing up to criminals, with nothing but their courage and occasionally a small gun, those are heroes. Me, I'm just a kid handed everything over to me with a silver spoon."

Usagi went over his words, and his story, and asked him, "Cell was far stronger then you when you started fighting him, wasn't he?"

"Uh, yeah," Gohan asked not quite getting it.

"And you trained in that Chamber of Spirit and Time against a Super Saiyan version of your father in order to become one yourself, didn't you?" Usagi asked.

"I suppose," Gohan returned not quite getting it.

"And this Freeza was far more powerful every time you faced him, right?" Usagi asked again.

Gohan looked at her, answering, "Yes."

Usagi smiled at him, and said, "Then you _/are/_ a hero, you're just one on a higher level. Facing Freeza and Cell while you didn't know if you could win, takes the same amount of courage it takes a fireman to walk into a burning building. You _/are/_ a hero."

Gohan felt uncomfortable looking into the girls adoring eyes, and quickly said, "So why are you here? Why come looking for me? I know I caused all your grief, but . . ."

"No," Usagi interrupted him, and sat back up straight. "Not you, we did." Gohan looked at her confused. "You have to go back to your dimension, I know, you need to protect your own world, I did not come here to ask you to stay, or come with me to the future, besides you still have . . ." Usagi clamped her mouth shut, and Gohan looked at her even more strangely. "Forget I said that," Usagi fidgeted, and got up, took a few steps and turned around, thinking of how to put this. "We were arrogant, Sailor Pluto was arrogant the most of us, I suppose. She can she a possible future, except she thought she saw _/the/_ future. You were . . . are not from this universe, which made it impossible to foresee. When you came here, you irrevocably altered the flow of time, as well as influenced the forces around the entire galaxy. But that was not _/the/_ future that Setsuna saw, so it was not to be. You were insanely powerful, and since she never saw people with your power - she couldn't even imagine such power in just one person - she figured there wouldn't be anymore. But they came anyway, weaker ones at first, but still powerful enough to beat us. But this was not meant to be, right? So we go back in time, and with the known weakness beat them easily. We patted ourselves on our backs - look, how good we are, how strong! But more came, with greater numbers, greater power, all coming to investigate . . . and yet we did not grow stronger; oh, we grew stronger, but not to the levels required, none of us trained, none of us sought out ways to boost our strength, we all waited for hand outs, a boost in strength here, one there, at random mostly, but that wouldn't last, eventually the ones ready and willing to fight us, simply grew too strong - some of them were professional armies, others power hungry mad men - unlike us they _/do/_ train, they _/do/_ seek out ways to become far stronger, one of the very reasons they came to Earth . . ." Usagi let the sentence hang there, and locked eyes fully with Gohan, "By the time Setsuna finally realized she could only see a possible future, and that others would continue to come, especially since we beat an army, or a powerful mad alien that others exalted, or feared, or were hunting down, that her ideal possible future she saw wasn't ever coming true, it was too late; we lost."

"So, why are you here?" Gohan asked after a few moments of silence.

"Because there is only one solution, one final desperate hope," Usagi answered him with pained eyes. "Make _/sure/_ we grow stronger, _/force/_ us to train, _/force/_ us to understand there is no way back . . . make sure we can _/not/_ travel back in time. That's why I'm here, to find you, before we started using it, because you are the only one powerful enough to destroy the time gates, and Pluto's time scepter."

Gohan looked at her somewhat shocked at first, and then his gaze went to thoughtful, taking in the girl deeply. He was drawn to her - was that coincidence, or design? Was she really has hard up as she seemed, or was this all a ploy to use him to cripple his friends. Usagi for her part was suddenly very nervous. Why was he looking at her so cold and calculating all of a sudden? "So, how do I know your little story is true?" Gohan asked her calmly.

*Oh, god,* Usagi thought in horror. *He doesn't believe me! Why should he!? For all he knows he's going to help defeat his friends. We should have thought of this, brought proof, but there wasn't time.*

_["It's the only way, you know where to go!" a bloodied Pluto told Chibi-Moon. Behind them, as they ran through the streets of Saitama. An explosion rocked them through to their bones, and they looked behind them. The aerial army was gaining on them, and several buildings collapsed under their weapons' power. "Once you get to the past, the portal will stay open for four hours, even if you got Gohan to destroy my time abilities. If you don't get back in before that time . . . you'll be stuck there, I won't blame you."_

_Usagi's eyes were filled with tears, she didn't want to leave her good friend to her fate. "I'll stay here and distract them, hurry, it's our last hope," Setsuna told her, as she turned around to face the onrushing army._

_"You can't . . ."_

_"GO!" Pluto yelled, their eyes met for one last brief moment, then Usagi ran for all she was worth. She zipped in between alley's and across streets, all around people ran for their lives, trying to flee the city. An explosion sounded, and then another, and Usagi new that Pluto had engaged the aliens. A television in a shop announced that all the world was mobilized against this common threat, but Usagi knew that unless they nuked the whole of Japan, and hopefully take most of the aliens out that way, they didn't stand a chance. Nobody on Earth stood a chance against these monsters._

_Finally she reached the place, the shimmering energy in the wall showing her she was really there. There was another explosion and then it was oddly quiet, at least for now. "Setsuna," Usagi whispered in shock; she knew it, they had stopped firing for a moment to celebrate the demise of their for to last enemy. Usagi herself was hardly hurt, the other soldiers had done duty too well for her liking: protect the princess at all costs. "Goodbye," she whispered, wiping away her tears, and dove into the time portal that Setsuna had managed to summon.]_

Usagi's heart broke. How could she possible convince him? This whole trip would be for naught, they'd all be dead anyway. Tears started to flow from her eyes, across her cheeks, and Gohan's heart broke, he wanted to help her so bad, but what if she was just a very good actress? Suddenly he had an idea. "Saiyan's are touch telepaths," Gohan said, and Usagi looked up. "If you'd let me into your mind, I could be certain."

Usagi's face lighted up, and she wiped away her tears, as she nodded, and choked out several grateful, and hopeful sobs. She walked forward, and Gohan got up. He ran his fingers through her hair once, fingering the jeweled clips that kept her side tails in place, and gave her a reassuring smile. Then, like his father once did to him, he placed his right hand on the top of her head, and closed his eyes. He had never really done this, so it took him a few seconds to figure out, and then Usagi's mind blossomed open for him. He gasped once, and so did she. Then he took his hand away, and she looked up into his eyes. "You're telling the truth," Gohan told her unnecessarily.

Usagi nodded, and asked, "Will you help, Gohan-san?"

"You know this might only speed up your deaths, don't you?" Gohan asked her with concern.

Once again she nodded, and said, "It's our only hope." He nodded, and she swallowed, and a big, but deeply saddened smile graced her features. "The times gates are not on the planet," she said. "They're on an asteroid in between Mars and Jupiter."

"So how are we going to get there?" Gohan asked her gently.

"Teleportation," Usagi answered and held out her hand. Gohan took it. "Ready?" Gohan nodded. "Sailor Teleport!" The kindred spirits disappeared from the apartment a moment later.

*****

The two suddenly appeared in a dark, dark stretch of land. The sky swirled like ink, everything was black, or dark blue, except for a gleaming white building, large gates sealing it off, it radiated power. Gohan extended his senses, and noticed there were large sections underground. Usagi stood next to him, a little nervously, when from the darkness there emerged a dark female form. She had green hair that reached to below her buttocks, she was dressed in a classic Sailor Soldier uniform, and she was holding a large staff defensively in front of her. "Who's there?" she asked suspiciously.

"Setsuna," Usagi called out and took several steps toward Sailor Pluto, guardian of the Gates of Time.

Pluto looked at Usagi suspiciously, but recognized her. "What are you doing here? You are not supposed to be here, at least not for another . . . who's he?"

Gohan regarded her calmly, and gave her a smile, his ki slowly rising, knowing he had to blow the whole asteroid away. "This is Son Gohan, Setsuna," Usagi started explaining, hoping this could go over easily. "He came her via the inter-dimensional ship, Setsuna, he needs to destroy this place. You sent me yourself to make sure it's done."

"No way," Sailor Pluto answered becoming more and more defensive.

Usagi got desperate, she had no interest in hurting her longtime friend. "Setsuna, please . . ."

Pluto then started charging an attack, but suddenly Gohan shot forward grabbed the staff and pulled it away from her before either Pluto or Usagi could even blink their eyes. The two Soldiers looked shocked, even Usagi, who had heard all the stories, could barely believe her eyes. She had hardly seen Gohan move, a flicker that was it. But Pluto was disarmed, and Gohan held the staff horizontally in front of him. "Sorry," he apologized, and he grabbed the staff with both hands, and started pushing pressure on it. His ki flame erupted, and slowly but surely the staff of time bent upward. Pluto looked on in fear as the boy bent it further and further, until cracks could be heard, and then with a snap the staff broke and slammed together. Sparkles of energy were released from the broken end. Then Gohan started the process over again until the staff broke a second time, now in four parts. Finished he burst into the air, charged his hands with energy, enveloping the broken staff, and he yelled, "KAMEHAMEHA!!" The staff was sent downward, hurtling at the edge of the massive beam of energy, and it crashed against the building of the Gates of Time. Not even the ancient magical building could withstand enough power to obliterate a planet, and it was vaporized instantly. The beam cut down into the core of the asteroid and exploded outward with a heavy roar. The explosion that followed tore the ground itself apart sending it flying though the air. Usagi and Pluto looked shocked at the sight of the gates disintegrating, and the massive shockwave heading their way. A shimmer of light surrounded them just in time, as Gohan landed next to them. The shockwave of energy that was reverberating throughout the entire asteroid bounced of the shield, and continued onward. "Get out us out of here, Usagi! The whole place is going to blow," Gohan said with urgency, as the rock was starting to groan and pieces were breaking open.

"Right," the pink-haired girl said, and grabbed both of her friends' arms. "Sailor Teleport," she called out, and the group of three disappeared from the asteroid, which was destroyed a moment later.

*****

The both of them were back in Gohan's apartment after putting Pluto somewhere safe on the ground. The fiery embers of the destroyed asteroid wouldn't become visible until after nightfall, but they were there. Gohan stood across from Usagi, and they looked at each other with said eyes. "I have to go," she said weakly, not really wanting to, afraid of what she would find on the other side, and not wanting to leave this kindred spirit.

"You could stay," Gohan tried. He didn't know exactly what he felt, but he knew it was more than lust, more than attraction, as powerful as love perhaps, not quite it, but it could become that. She was so much like him, their histories so much the same, it was almost scary. "Help change the future."

She shook her head, "I can't, they won't learn."

"How about just living on your own? Perhaps even come back with me, to my dimension?" he asked hopefully.

"I belong here," she replied looking into his eyes. "I'm going back, and either I succeeded . . . or I will make my last stand there." The two stood there, gazing into each other's eyes, finally Usagi turned around and started going for the exit.

Suddenly Gohan reached out, grabbed her gently by her left upper arm, and pulled her to him, and against him. A little shocked Usagi looked up into his eyes, shivers running down her body as she felt his arms around her. "How long do you still have, before you can't go back?" he asked huskily not really knowing why, his eyes searching hers.

Feeling weak in her knees, Usagi checked the watch that Sailor Pluto had given her. Then she looked back up to him, and answered, whispering, "Another two and a half hours."

"Don't go yet then," he pleaded, and then he dipped down and kissed her on the lips. Fire burned through Usagi's veins, this was so wrong, she was far too young, wasn't she? "This is our only chance, your only chance, you'll leave possibly to your death." Usagi swallowed, he was right, she didn't want to die, but if she was going to . . . she nodded weakly. Gohan dipped down, and kissed her again, more intensely this time, and they gently started maneuvering to his bedroom. Soon tongues were involved, and the two started fondling each other feverishly, experimenting. Soon the two settled down on the bed, pulling off each other's clothes, both suddenly hungry for each other. When her small, starting breasts appeared he fondled them with urgency, she did the same to his chest and arm muscles. Soon she was lying on her back, her legs lightly spread, and he moved over her. Kissing her deeply, and kneading one breast with his right hand, he penetrated her deeply, eliciting a moan and then a soft shriek as tore through her hymen.

*****

Gohan climaxed deep inside her, and they collapsed forward on the bed. He on top of her back, holding her breasts, sending pulses of ki into them. With a small shriek she orgasmed as well, and she moaned, "Mmh, that was incredible, all three times."

"I know," he answered breathlessly, amazed that they had actually done it, if his mother knew. No! She would never know he vowed. The two of them, had found in this cocoon of familiarity, and possibly impending death something not many people would understand, and it would stay between them. He knew he didn't even need to ask her that, this was something private, something only they would share together.

The two stayed in bed together, shifting positions to find themselves in a spoon position. After several minutes of contently lying together, Usagi checked her watch, and she said sadly, "I really have to go."

"Ok," Gohan said, and kissed her neck, and played with her amazingly pink hair. Slowly, very slowly the two got up, and started putting their clothes on.

Half an hour later they found themselves in front of the time portal, which started shimmering the moment Usagi came close to it. "You can still change your mind," Gohan whispered.

"I have to go," she answered him once again. He took her into his arms, and kissed her deeply one last time, gently cupping her ass. She started to heat up again, and broke the embrace. "Goodbye, Gohan," she said softly.

"Goodbye, Usagi, my Little Bunny," Gohan said, fighting back tears. One tear slid over her cheek, and smiled deeply at her nick name, and then dove into the swirling energy vortex. A moment later the light show was gone, and Gohan sighed deeply.

He stayed there, looking down at the floor sadly, and suddenly got an idea. "You may be able to change the past, Little Bunny, but I can change the future, it's my future to write," he suddenly said with a grim, confident smile. "I'll give you a world you can live in, not a world to die in." He nodded, after all, all this was because of his arrival, he had already irrevocably altered this dimension's time and history, might as well arm it as best as he could in the short time still left to him, to the things coming.

He turned around, and then ran. He found a phone booth, quickly went in and dialed Umino's number, remembering his friend had a thing for being heroic not to mention an incredible aim. "Hey, Umino, it's Gohan," he greeted, and listened to Umino's happy reply. "Do you know the Hikawa Shinto Shrine? All right them, meet me there, see you soon." Then Gohan hung up, and raced toward the Shrine.


	9. Chapter 9: Legendary Super Saiyan Unveil...

_Chapter 9: Legendary Super Saiyan Unveiled_

Ail and Ann's space ship shot through space, hurtling to find an uninhabited planet, where they could plant the one remains of their tree, and nurture it with love. They had learned their lesson: evil doesn't pay, love is good.

In the exact opposite direction another ship zipped through space. Ridish watched Ail and Ann's ship from inside it, and he looked back at Dimwu. The furred alien checked its scanners, and answered, "Nothing interdimensional."

"Can't have them potentially called reinforcements," Ridish grinned evilly, stopped the ship, and casually walked to the air lock. He went inside, then outside of the ship, his ki protecting from the freezing of space. Soon he would need to go back inside to breathe, but for a few minutes he could easily stand in space. He pointed his hand, and then an energy blast shot across the vas distance of space. His aim was true, the energy blast crossed Ail's and Ann's ship's path right on target. With an explosion the two aliens and their ship were wiped off from the face of existence. Ridish lazily went back into the ship, and ordered, "Onward." Dimwu started up the ship again, and it flew onward, as ordered: target Earth.

*****

The Sailor Soldiers had just finished congratulating each other, after Usagi - the original blonde one, with the odangos - finished telling the story of how Ail and Ann's tree needed love in order to grow, not energy, how the two had finally realized that, and found love, but too late and had left to find a place to plant the one small remains of the tree, and to try and revive it. She had done this of course, from the arms of her lover, Mamoru, who had merged with his split alter ego - Knight of the Moonlight - only just now, and finally regained his memory. At that moment Meiou Setsuna, also known as Sailor Pluto, walked in on them, and introduced herself. Before the team of magical heroes could reply, she made the transformation into Sailor Pluto - minus now destroyed staff - and finished, "I am Sailor Pluto, and I have _/grave/_ news, Princess. The Gates of Time were just destroyed, by an enemy with unimaginable power."

Pluto continued with detailing the whole event, leaving out that the fake, or turned Sailor Soldier that had brought the guy there was really Usagi's daughter. When she was finished with her detailed account, Artemis came from the group, and asked, "Great Guardian of Time, I know this is presumptuous, but do you happen to know the identity of this enemy?"

Pluto thought long and hard, was about to say no, when she remembered Usagi mention a name, "Yes, and no, the turned Sailor Soldier mentioned his name: Son Gohan."

There was deadly silence, the whole team looked at the newcomer with shocked expressions. "No, way," Makoto was the first to defend their new friend. "Gohan wouldn't do that, he's a friend, a hero."

Pluto was surprised at that answer. "Unless he was tricked," Minako tempered the reactions, of the other girls who were about to vehemently defend Gohan as well.

Suspiciously Rei took a step forward, and studied Pluto, then said, "How do we know _/you're/_ not the fake or turned Sailor Soldier?"

"Yeah," Usagi said, taking forward, a tiny bit of the great leader showing in the way she handled herself. "You just come barging in here, unannounced, we've never seen you before, and then start accusing one of our friends, someone who's saved all our lives, and most likely the world. Is there anything more than just your word we've got to go on?"

"She is who she says she is, and I did destroy the time gates."

The whole team looked over at the entrance of the small building, where Gohan stood, hands in his pockets. He walked inside, and the others looked at him in shock. Gohan walked passed the shocked crowd, and walked to the far corner of the room, and sat down calmly. "You were tricked?" Ami asked confused.

Gohan shook his head, "No, and the soldier that asked me to do it, isn't a fake, or turned either. I checked, she let me see into her mind, I'll explain in a little while when Umino is here, that way I have to explain everything only once."

The room burst into questions, and accusations, Mamoru having the least idea what was going on, and the least emotionally evolved, kept a level head. His commanding voice instantly silenced the others, as he asked, "Umino? He's an outsider, and he's pretty much physically incapable, what do you want him here for?"

"And who exactly are you?" Gohan asked him, two gazes of command, of royalty locking. It was a challenge, if you belong here, why doesn't Umino?

Usagi quickly interjected, "This is Chiba Mamoru, also known as the hero Tuxedo Kamen, he got split into the Knight of the Moonlight because he couldn't bare to forget me, the two merged again, he's the reincarnation of prince Endymion, he's my lover."

Of course Gohan couldn't keep behind after and intro like that, so he gave the guy a smile, and said, "I'm Son Gohan, heir to the Ox Kingdom throne, and I'm the hero Ninja Z." The two stared at each other, the girls, even Pluto the ancient guardian of time who was practically boiling with anger, and hate, were silent during the tug of wills. Eventually both smiled and then Gohan explained, "You are correct, Umino also has the heart of a hero, the aim of a hawk, I think most of the soldiers here can attest to that . . ." The girls, except Usagi and Setsuna remembered the day in the virtual reality theater, and gave each other a quick look, and nodded. Gohan finished, then, "as for his other physical capabilities, or incapabilities, that won't be an issue once I'm done training him, as I'll be training you." Before the others could make any surprising, or indignant comments, Gohan added, "As for him being here, you'll have to train many others with what I teach you, a few of the fighters at the tournament had great potential, for a few girls, and a guy in fancy clothes won't be able to fight off entire armies, and this Earth's armies won't stand a chance against the armies that are coming."

"Ah, did you invite this fine young lad over here?" an old croaking voice asked. Everybody looked over. Rei's grandfather stood their, his eyes sparkling as they moved over the young, nubile flesh, finally resting on Setsuna. "Ooh, new blood."

"Grandfather," Rei said with a little exasperation, but always respect.

"All right, all right, I'm going, I'm going, I never understand what you kids are doing in there all the time," the old man complained and left the building, leaving a nervous Umino standing at the entrance.

"Come in, Umino," Gohan said, and the Umino took a few steps, looking at the girls, and the costumed Pluto. "I'd like you to meet the Sailor Soldiers, and Tuxedo Kamen, also known as some of your best friends, their friends, and Chiba Mamoru, and the recent new addition, Meiou Setsuna, Sailor Pluto, guardian of time."

The whole group was shocked at the bold-faced introduction, not to mention the accurate naming of Sailor Pluto. "Umino, I'm Son Gohan, I'm half-Human, half-Saiyan, and I'm from another dimension. Everyone meet Gurio Umino, your new ally."

Gohan got up, taking advantage of the shocked silence, "Today a Sailor Soldier from the future arrived in my living room, she was your daughter Usagi."

"WHAT!?" the blonde shrieked out in shock and panic. "Daughter!?"

"She asked me to destroy the time gates, and I did," Gohan continued calmly. "She couldn't change the past more than she was allowed to, but I can write the future anyway I see fit. I'm going to give you the basic history of the future - you die, all of you, the entire planet." All of their jaws dropped in shock. "Because of me, because of you, my arrival here irrevocably changed any possible future. You could not see my arrival Setsuna, because I am not of this universe, and thus not of this time. My breaching the dimensional barriers has been picked up by many sensors, or will be picked up if the signal hasn't reached there yet, throughout the galaxy. And they'll be coming here, two of them already did, I destroyed them. Remember how easily they defeated you? Those following will be infinitely stronger, and / or come with far greater numbers. They want a new power, if they get their hands on inter-dimensional technology they'll get many advantages over any enemy they're fighting."

Gohan paused here, and looked around the room, he saw the expression on their faces. "Partly it is your fault," he continued looking deeply into their eyes, one by one. "You were arrogant, especially you Setsuna. What you saw, is only a possibly future, not _/the/_ future. You can't get it anymore, it's over, your ideal future will never come, my arriving here irrevocably destroyed that possibility. But you figured that out far to late, you figured you had to guard the time-line, not time, you sent soldiers back in time every time you managed to defeat them, figured out a weakness to exploit. As a result none of you died, none of you saw the threat the enemies posed, you just patted yourself on the back whenever you used a weakness to overcome them. Eventually there came an army, too powerful, and too numerous to overcome, you were defeated, killed, along with city by city the rest of the world. That's why you sent Usagi's daughter back in time, one final desperate time travel; _/force/_ you to fight, _/force/_ you all to train, to grow stronger . . ."

Gohan was interrupted as Setsuna dropped to her knees in shock, understanding written on her face. "By removing our ability to go back in time, so we can't get a quick fix, oh, Kamis," she whispered, as she understood what happened, and her own innate knowledge of time and the future allowing her to see Gohan was telling the truth.

"So, you ready to fight the future?" Gohan asked them, and watched the girls turn their heads to him, each slowly bit by bit growing determined, Mamoru's joined them. "That includes you, Umino." The boy swallowed deeply, but did not go away. "Good, time to start the basics." Gohan's ki flame burst into existence, an charged an energy ball above either hand that he held up, "This is your ki, your life force, yin and yang. You may have great battle instincts, but against beings that can level cities, and even destroy planets you don't stand a chance if you can't tap into this power. The more you have of it, the more powerful your attacks, the more powerful your magic. I'm going to teach you all how to tap into it . . . uh, this is the difficult part, I've never been really trained in how to tap into it, I pretty much did it automatically." Gohan scratched his head sheepishly, "This is going to take some figuring out." The magical girls groaned.

In the next half an hour Ami had the brilliant idea (obviously) to transform. As per her idea, the girls found they could feel and tap into their ki much better and easier, and once Gohan had given them the basics, they managed to do the same when they were not transformed - of course, tapping in and feeling their ki wasn't generating waves of energy, flying or powering ki balls. It would take a lot of training before they could do that, this beginning was all internal, better control of their energy and bodies. Gohan had less luck with the two guys who could not transform into magical warriors. Before he could come up with a solution though, Gohan suddenly looked up into the sky and a dark look crossed his features.

The others stopped their practicing, and watched Gohan. "Is their a reason why you let the Seijuurou and Natsumi go?" Gohan asked casually, almost sadly.

"Their tree didn't need energy, but love, they've learned to feel it, their good people now. They're finding an uninhabited planet where they can nurture the last remains of their tree back to life using love," Usagi answered him with big, naive eyes.

"They won't, they're dead," Gohan announced, definitely saddened now. Shock ran through the girls' features, Usagi even let a few tears. "They didn't heed my warning," Gohan said very darkly, anger slowly building over the careless destruction of life, especially life that had obviously been friends with some of his, even though they had tried to kill them on occasion, the two _/had/_ learned their lesson. He started pulling off his shirt, revealing his Ninja Z costume underneath, then slowly took off his pants, and realized that by taking it slow, they didn't get all caught into each other. By the time he was finished, the girls had transformed as well. Mamoru - not having time to get his costume after the Ail and Ann incident - and Umino both stayed behind.

*****

"Do I really have to come with?" Dimwu asked with a shaky voice, as the shuttle touched down. "I can't just stay in orbit while you go deal with the situations."

"I can destroy this planet with ease, this is just one fighter, coward, I'll deal with him, let's go," Ridish told the fur ball with an angry scowl.

"So can the fighter," Dimwu said but followed the other alien anyway.

Ridish and Dimwu flew into the city, the yellow alien casually scanning the area, and soon seeing a black and red clad person hanging casually in the air, seemingly waiting for him, his arms folded across his chest. On the tall building behind him a few colorfully drabbed individuals stood watching. As Ridish came closer he realized the figure couldn't be more than a boy. Dimwu behind Ridsh swallowed and went over to another building only a few stories high and placed himself there, ready for the shame.

Ridish slowed down a few meters away from Gohan, and with a grin, he asked, "Say boy, you wouldn't now any exceptionally good and powerful fighters around here, do you?" Dimwu winced.

"_/I/_ am one," Gohan told him casually, only his eyes and hair visible behind the mask.

Ridish chuckled evilly, "I'm sure you are, kid, but I'm looking for the guy who defeat him and a colleague of ours not too long ago. He tried to destroy the city, so you can understand the power behind it. Killing all these innocent people is a big no, no, you see, he's been punished, but we'd like to apologize."

"That would be me, the name is Ninja Z, and apology accepted, now leave," Ninja Z aka Gohan replied with an unseen, grim smile.

The words and meaning took a while to filter through the warriors brain, and then he turned to look at Dimwu waiting fearfully on a roof, and said, "You two got beaten up by a little kid? What kind of weak fools are you!?" Dimwu shrank back in shame, and then Ridish turned back to Gohan. "All right, boy, if you really have that kind of power at this age, the boss could use you. How about you join us, we'll teach you everything we know, make you a great warrior!"

"There's nothing you can teach me, I would be the one teaching you," Ninja Z answered with a statement of fact.

Ridish chuckled, and chuckled some more and harder, and suddenly laughed out loud. Suddenly he moved and threw a punch at Ninja Z, who avoided the blow, and landed a left cross across the yellow alien's chin. The alien shot back a little and then slowed himself down. "That's it," Ridish growled, and a deep purple ki flame enveloped him with such force that the nearby just fixed windows in the tall buildings shattered again.

Gohan's ki flame burst forth with a vengeance, the warning beep on both power levels in Dimwu's scanner made the furred alien jump and then look with wide shocked eyes at the readout. "Unbelievable," he whispered in shock at the machine.

A moment later the two main combatants were in furious battle. Punches in kicks were mere blurs, if they weren't invisible. The alien showed a surprising level of skill, almost equal to Gohan's own. Punches were blocked, and punches were countered on both sides. One of Ridish's connected, and Gohan flew down. He somersaulted, landed on the pavement - cracking it - and then jumped backward immediately. A moment later Ridish's fist hit the pavement where Gohan was standing, and the pavement was destroyed leaving a good size hole. At that moment an energy blast connected with the alien, and exploded, causing the alien to groan in pain as he was flung bang. He growled in anger, pushed off of the asphalt of the road, creating a star of cracks, and sped into the air, where Gohan and him were once again locked into combat.

"They make Jarbal look like a snail," Sailor Jupiter muttered in disbelief at the rapidly moving warriors.

The punches Gohan landed Ridish started to shrug off mostly. Gohan did the same with his, but it was obvious he did it with far less ease. Ridish grinned at the Gohan, he was mightily surprised at the boy's power and skill, but he knew the kid couldn't last long. He landed an energy ball on the half-Saiyan, which exploded and sent Gohan back. Using the opportunity Ridish flashed forward and landed a massive punch against Gohan, who was flung back with incredible speeds. He groaned at the pain blossoming in his chin. He rapidly twisted around his axis, and put his left leg down upon the ground to slow himself down, his ki flame growing in intensity. Gohan continued moving backward, the asphalt cracking open and pushed aside, leaving a ditch. He moved straight for a t-split and a building, and while the Sailor Soldiers watched in awe, he rapidly slowed down, just on time not to take the pavement with him. With a sudden flash Gohan disappeared from his position, and reappeared near Ridish. With a powerful yell he through a left hook with all his might. Ridish left hand came up, and blocked it.

Gohan was still floating in the air, his eyes locked with his enemy's, their arms still locked together. Ridish's smile deepened, and then Gohan pulled his arms back, smirked, and gently lowered himself to the ground. He placed himself a meter away from Ridish.

"You can still join us, boy," Ridish told Gohan with an evil grin, showing a few rows of pointed, razor sharp teeth.

"No, this is _/your/_ last chance to leave," Gohan countered calmly.

Ridish laughed, and then told him, "You're living in a dream world, boy. You should know I outclass you in power _/and/_ speed."

Gohan grinned, and told him, "It seems you refuse to listen to reason. Fine then, consider yourself lucky, you're going to be one of a very privileged few who get to fight a legendary Super Saiyan, and far less even have survived the encounter."

Risish looked surprised, and completely confused, "Legendary Super what!? Do you take me for a . . ."

With a quick yell Gohan transformed, and intense golden aura pulsed around him. The asphalt had cracked just a little under his feet. His hair stood up and waved gently as if charged with electricity and was equally golden as his aura. His eyes had turned emerald green, and his pupils were no longer visible. With a small bang Dimwu's scanner exploded, and he looked shocked at the remains. "No way," he whispered.

At the same time, Sailor Mars suddenly grabbed the sides of her head, and screamed out. She staggered back under the completely unexpected onslaught. Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Moon grabbed her, and held her stomach. Slowly Mars gained back control, but she kept holding her head, and her eyes were wide, jaw slack. "That's insane, it shouldn't be possible," she said, straightened and looked down at Super Gohan.

The others looked at the new Gohan as well, amazed at his golden hair, and the golden flame of energy surrounding him, serenely dangerous looking.

"What the . . .?" Ridish muttered in surprise, looking into the cold green eyes. The fact that the rest of Gohan's face was obscured, made him seem all the more dangerous. The alien then got himself under control, and hissed, "Changing your hair color won't do anything!" He failed to notice the destroyed meter as he attacked, and threw a devastating punch. Gohan blocked it with a casual raising of his left arm. Ridish looked into the enraged green eyes of the Super Saiyan, and he flinched. He quickly backed off and continued with a flurry of blows that would have made many martial artist proud. Gohan didn't move a millimeter, only his rams and hands moved, constantly blocking or deflecting the rain of punched. Finally Ridish managed to get through the half-Saiyan's defenses, and landed a solid punch on Gohan's jaw. All it did was make Gohan's head snap to the side a little. Gohan looked back at Ridish, and saw the disbelief written there.

"I told you this would happen," Gohan said calmly. Ridish jumped up, and started firing energy blast after energy blast down at the golden boy. On after the other crashed and exploded, until some came flying back at him. Ridish had to avoid his own blasts that hurtled out into space and was forced to stop with his onslaught. When the dust cleared, Ridish watched the Super Saiyan stand there, unscathed, a myriad of holes slammed into the asphalt and pavement surrounding him.

Gohan suddenly blinked out, and reappeared far above Ridish. The yellow alien looked left and right, but didn't find him. "Up here," Gohan said, and Ridish looked up. His eyes widening when he saw the energy attack charge in Gohan's hands. "Kamehameha!" Gohan yelled and sent the massive beam of energy down. Ridish stayed put like a dear caught in the head lights. A moment later the beam struck him, and he screamed in pain as it shredded at his skin and yanked him down to the ground. The beam impacted, and carefully controlled, virtually all of its energy was directed upward harmlessly into the atmosphere as it exploded.

Gohan rapidly moved downward after Ridish, and before the alien could get up from the whole he was lying in, Gohan smashed his foot into his stomach. Ridish yelled out with pain as she doubled over, before painfully lying back down. Rapidly Gohan grabbed Ridish by his head, and flipped him over, making him face the ground, and smashed him face first into the asphalt, eliciting a painful groan from the alien. Gohan pulled him and smashed him back down again, and did this several times over while he said, "I. Really. Hate. Being. Called. A. Boy!!"

Gohan then just let him go, and dropped him to the ground. He turned him back around, and got into Ridish's face, bloodied with purple, and hissed, "I'm giving you the exact same chance as the other two. Leave, and don't ever come back, better your life, if you return here, or I meet you out there and you haven't changed your ways, I will kill you."

Gohan then stood up and looked over at Dimwu still standing on the roof. "I warned you," Gohan said, stretched out a hand, charged a blast and fired it. Before the furred alien could react, he was blown to bits with a small explosion. Gohan turned back to Ridish, and said, "Now get lost." Then with a mighty kick, Gohan sent Ridish sailing through the air to where his space ship was standing.

A few moments later the Sailor Soldiers arrived with Gohan after jumping off the building. "Whoa," Venus muttered looking at the impressive golden glow surrounding the Saiyan.

Suddenly a reporter and a cameraman arrived, and the reporter said, "Hello, sir. You are a new super hero I see. What's your name? And would you consent to an interview!?"

Gohan looked with disbelief at the man, and Sailor Moon answered for him. "He's Ninja Z!" she exclaimed, giddy with excitement.

"And no," Gohan finished and then lifted up in the air and blasted off. The soldiers quickly turned away from the reporter as well and ran away.

*****

The girls had marveled at Gohan's transformation back at the shrine. Not very comfortable with that, and still no closer to solving the mystery on how to train the two non-magical persons, and neither were the Sailor Soldiers, Gohan had excused himself and gotten back to his apartment. Seeing the inter-dimensional ship got him an idea. He quickly get the interdimensional communicator and dialed up Bulma. #Hey, Gohan,# she greeted a few moments later from the small screen.

"Hi, Bulma, is Krillin training with Vegeta by any chance?" Gohan asked excitedly.

#Uh, yeah, want to talk to him?# Bulma asked a little uncertain.

"Yeah, if you would," Gohan told her. Bulma nodded and disappeared for a short while.

A couple of minutes later Krillin appeared on the screen, Vegeta's complaining could be heard in the background. #Hello, Gohan, how's everything going over there?# Krillin asked Gohan.

"I'm fine, but this place - not so good, which is why I'm calling," Gohan answered with a worried frown. "How did Master Roshi teach you to tap into your ki? I'm trying to teach two guys to do it, but I can't seem to get them to feel their energy. I can't get them to tap into it. I just _/did/_ it, I never really learned how to go about doing it."

#Have you lost your mind!?# Bulma screeched out and pushed Krillin away from the screen. #You can't do that, Gohan!! You can't just alter an entire dimension to suit your purposes!#

"Bulma, that's already happened," Gohan said with a pained voice, almost pleading for Bulma to understand. "Several aliens have already arrived, and many more will be coming because I'm here. Their sensors detected the breaching of the dimensional barriers, now they're coming here to get their hands on the technology, and this Earth is doomed. A girl from the future came, she needed me to help me with something. They will lose, too strong, too many, in a few decades this world will be a waste land. Nobody will be alive, everyone dies. That's all because of us, because we came here, the least I can do is arm them against what comes." Bulma looked at him, deeply shocked, slowly she slumped away from the screen, obviously saddened that her invention had such a horrible impact on the universe it went to.

Krillin reappeared on the screen, and said, #You came to the right man, Gohan. Me, Yamcha, Tien and Chaozu just started a new Martial Arts school, and we figured that the horrendous training regimen me and Goku endured from Master Roshi was overboard. So we devised a way to teach our students to become quickly familiar with their ki without extremely hard training. Of course, this won't really make them stronger, it's just that now they've learned of their ki, and perfect for self-defense classes. If they want to get stronger, and compete in tournaments, or even compete with us, they _/will/_ have to go through that horrendous training.#

Gohan nodded, saying, "I get it."

Krillin nodded, #I'll give you both, got a pen and paper?# Gohan nodded grabbing a pen and paper and holding it out for the camera for a brief moment. #All right then, first is the faster way to tap into ki, what you have to teach them, then I'll explain how Master Roshi trained me, they'll have to keep doing that on their own after you leave.# Gohan raised his eyebrows questioningly. #Bulma is almost done with her new ship,# Krillin clarified, before starting to tell the training techniques.


	10. Chapter 10: Training is Hard

_Chapter 10: Training is Hard_

"Faster!" Gohan ordered, and Umino and Mamoru tried to comply as they ran laps around the small gym in the shrine.

The Sailor Team were doing exercises and looked sympathetically at the seemingly sadistic training method that Gohan was applying to them. "Ah, Gohan," Umino whimpered as he trudged onward, every muscle in his body aching. "I'm not cut out for this."

"Tuxedo Umino Kamen," Gohan said deadpan, his eyes lowered in a cool gaze, almost a glower. "Do you want to be some guy looking stupid and crying but never doing anything, or do you want to fight to keep your loved ones alive? How about I tell you Naru will die in a week by a low attack by some alien monster?" For a moment Umino got a stricken look, and then he continued onward, actually speeding up a little.

Gohan watched his friend manage to make several more laps, until he stripped and fell down onto the floor. He groaned, and then moaned out, "I'm through, I can't take another step, all I feel is pain, cramps and the beating of my heart."

"Perfect," Gohan said, and walked over. He lifted his left index finger which started to glow. Umino looked up at him not understanding, and the others, including Mamoru stopped to watch what was going on. Gohan bent over, and touched Umino at the side of his head with the glowing finger. A little vibration suddenly went through the boy, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"I . . . I . . . I can feel it, my energy, my ki," he said shocked, and he suddenly seemed to perk up.

"Good, now sit up in lotus position, and meditate, focus on the energy flows through your body, learn how it works, quickly," Gohan ordered, and Umino complied. He sat up, and seemed to center himself, breathing heavy, but deep and even.

"How come he gets to learn before I do? I've far better trained," Mamoru said, a little resentment over the fact that the bungling kid got the glowing touch first.

"Exactly," Gohan told him with a grin, "You're much better trained, it will simply take you a far longer time to reach the exhaustion point Umino has. You need to reach that state, where you are so deeply through every reserve that you'll feel your heart beating in your head. To have your blood streaming with great speed, thus great change of electrical charge, thus greater induction occurring, to have your mind work overtime regulating all the stressed parts of your body, having your mind be in tune with your body. Never felt a tingling sensation when you're that exhausted? You reach that state, a quick resonance burst of energy will make your ki sing to your mind. So onward! Run till you drop to the floor with exhaustion!" Mamoru regarded Gohan for a moment, processing the information, and then ran again, faster this time.

Gohan turned to the girls, six in total now, and he looked them over for a moment. "All right, Bunny" he said, addressing Usagi, who looked pissed off at him. "Let's see how much you've learned." He then beckoned her over.

Usagi took two steps forward, and then complained, "This isn't fair. How can I possibly fight you? Even _/with/_ my transformation I won't stand a chance."

"Transform then," Gohan suggested.

Usagi seemed happy and got out her pendant. Just as she was started to yell her transformation phrase there was a sound, a flash, and then she stood there with her hand in the air, but no more pendant. "What!?" Usagi exclaimed in surprise and mortification. She looked around and saw Gohan stand there casually, hands clasped behind his back. The other girls looked equally shocked at the disappearance of the pendant. Gohan than brought his hands forward and casually started tossing the pendant up, only to catch it, and toss it up again.

"Don't ever, ever lose this thing," Gohan told all of them intensely. "I'm going to train you enough, that hopefully you won't need this little trinket anymore, but if you need it, do everything in your power the bad guys never get it. What do you think would happen if I crush it?" The girls looked stricken. "Hide it, in a volt, better yet, don't even use it. The less often you use it, the less often anyone sees the thing, the lower the chance they'll get it, got that?" Gohan tossed the pendant back to Usagi as the team answered. Preoccupied with catching the pendant Usagi didn't answer. "Got that, Bunny?"

That was the final straw. Usagi had had enough of it, she had enough of the horrible training which was wearing her out, his constant criticism, no matter how much he was right, and she certainly had enough of being called 'Bunny'. "WHY DO YOU KEEP CALLING ME, BUNNY!!?!?" Usagi suddenly screamed out, with her face squinted in anger, and her arms tense close alongside her body, hands clenched into fists.

Gohan was taken aback at the outburst. Confused he answered, "That's what 'Usagi' means doesn't it?"

Usagi's stance immediately relaxed. She was unaware of her friends looking at her with surprise. "Well, yeah, I suppose," Usagi muttered a little flabbergasted, then got her second wind. "That doesn't mean you have to mangle my name, it's Usagi, not Bunny."

"But it sounds so much cuter, Bunny," Gohan protested lightly, with large innocent eyes.

Usagi went ballistic, "STOP CALLING ME THAT!! You, you, YOU RICE MONKEY!! You don't see me calling you that, do you?"

"No, I don't know lipreading, I haven't heard you calling me that though," Gohan answered thoughtfully. "But 'Rice Monkey' doesn't sound cuter, or better in any way than 'Gohan'."

Usagi's jaw dropped in disbelief, while the other girls giggled, and Umino chuckled. Mamoru was too busy running his heart out of his body to notice. "He's got you there, Usagi," Ami said, and laughed some more.

"I give up!" Usagi wailed out, tearing pooling from her eyes and sinking to her knees in defeat.

"Get back up, Usagi," Gohan said with a smile, and the girl perked up at her proper name, slowly getting back to her feet. "I promise I won't use 'Bunny' often." Usagi glared at him at that answer, and grumbled in annoyance.

"All right, back on track," Gohan added and took a deep breath. "Your magical enhancements are powered by the planets, correct?" The team of girls nodded. "Right, make sure that information never gets to the bad guys. Best change your names altogether. If a enemy ever figures out your names are the names of the planet, he might figure it out. You may be able to pool your efforts and be able to beat a bad guy, but the bad guy might have enough power to obliterate planets. He might not be able to blow up this one for whatever reason - there are hardly any species out there that can survive in space, that's true for my universe, and I think for this one as hell - that won't stop him from destroying the other planets, removing your power, and your chances of defeating him. Do _/not/_ let that information slip, ever."

*****

"Ow, my aching body," Ami complained as she and the other soldiers staggered and limped along the Tokyo street a few days later. "I cannot believe the training Gohan is putting his through. Everything hurts, hardly any actual enemies have beaten us up this bad."

"Uh, uh, I'm beat, we were supposed to have fun, but I don't think I have enough energy to sleep, let alone to do something fun," Usagi said in a whiny voice. For once she got no objections, only agreeing grumbles. 

The five of them - the ancient Setsuna didn't seem to be inclined to hang out with the teens - passed a comics store. Minako happened to turn to look at the windowsill, and froze. The others walked onward without noticing. Minako took a step closer and looked at the cover of one heavily featured comic, her mouth open slightly in disbelief. Only a few moments passed before the others noted her absence and turned back around. "What's the matter, Minako?" Makoto asked with curiosity.

"I _/cannot/_ believe this," she said in shock and pointed at the comic. The other girls leaned over and checked out the cover. With wild letters it proclaimed, 'Sailor V and Ninja Z, the greatest romantic crossover event!' There was picture of Sailor V, Sailor Venus' earlier persona, in her full regalia, and then there was Ninja Z; golden hair, embracing the Sailor-suited heroine in his arms, and kissing her deeply. Then below, there stood, 'Will she stay Sailor V? Or become Sailor Z?' The other girls smiled, and started chuckling. "IT'S NOT FUNNY!!" Minako screamed out, only making the other girls laugh more.

The blonde stormed into the store. It had rows and rows of all kinds of different comics. She quickly found the big stand with the Sailor V / Ninja Z crossover comics. She grabbed one and started leafing through it. The other girls came standing behind her. Makoto and Usagi both grabbed their own copies, Ami and Rei looked over Minako's shoulder. The blonde's mouth opened further and further as she turned page after page without reading. Sailor V and Ninja Z beating a bad guy together, being attracted to each other but both quickly leaving. A little further on the two had their first kiss, Ninja Z's mask pulled up just enough to free his mouth but nothing else. An origin story for Ninja Z. Another big giant battle with a bad guy that beat the crap out of both of them before they finally found a combined attack to beat him. Their relief turning to lust, them spending time in a motel room. Minako looked with shocked, and slowly enraged growing eyes at the picture. It wasn't porn, but the pictures showed quite some skin, not just of legs, but also other more private parts, of course the same went for Ninja Z's body.

"Hmm," Ami murmured, her eyes glued to Ninja Z's - Gohan's - body or what the artist imagined it would look like.

Minako flipped onward, looking with horror at the white wedding dress on the last few pages, and the tuxedo-ed Ninja Z, the both of them still wearing their masks in the public wedding, and virtually all other super heroes in comic book history as guests. Then the last page showed Sailor V in sexy lingerie diagonally from the back in a full page drawing; bare ass - only a little line of cloth into her crack - stockings, and her body turned just enough to show glimpses of the see-through bra, with lots of cleavage. Ninja Z - unmasked now - was lying on the bed in the back ground, but still large, bare chest above the sheets, bare leg sticking out below, and a big grin on his face. The final, final page, the back of the back of the comic, contained a large add: 'From next week onward; brand new Sailor Z comics! With plenty of appearances by Sailor Z's brand new husband and everyone's favorite new super hero: Ninja Z! And the new Ninja Z comic series continues onward, now having regular appearances from his brand new wife and everyone's favorite sailor-suited heroine: Sailor Z formerly Sailor V!'

"No!" Minako whispered in horror at the cheap selling ploy: she was never too fond of her comics, but never really had a problem with them, in fact she had a few issues secretly tucked away; but this was just disgusting. Undoubted Sailor Z's regular appearances would often be gratuitous half-nude shots of her in bed. Ugh.

"This is so cool!" Usagi exclaimed excitedly, having flipped through only a few pages, just arriving at the two featured super heroes showing some attraction. "I'm gonna buy one!"

Minako actually growled, and scarily enough all the girls looked at her. "If you _/dare/_ buy this piece of shit, _/Bunny/_, our friendship is over!!" Minako told her angrily. Usagi swallowed heavily and very slowly put the comic back in the rack, Minako dangerously tracked her every movement. Minako's head suddenly whipped around, looking at Makoto, and she snarled slowly, "Mako-chan." Makoto gently put the comic back under Minako's glower, and then watched Minako do the same with her comic, her knuckles white with tightness.

"Is something wrong with the comic?" a salesman asked somewhat puzzled at Minako's outburst.

"EVERYTHING!" Minako screamed out in frustration, making him flinch, then she stalked out of the store, with the other girls slowly following her.

The salesman looked perturbed, then suddenly Usagi who had waited to the last turned back. She grabbed a comic from the rack, gave it to the salesman, and said softly, "Put it aside for me, I'll come back for it later." Then she quickly ran out after her friends.

*****

The next day after school Minako and Rei stood waiting at the exit of Juuban Junior High, since they were all scheduled for more training. A few moments later the first batch of the rest of the group arrived; which was to say Usagi and Makoto. A minute later Umino and Naru walked over. Umino was reading a comic it seemed, and enjoying it. Naru smiled at him, and talking. Umino gave an occasional nod, and answered a question, proving he was paying attention to her as well as the comic. It was then that Minako recognized the cover. Her eyes widened, and then narrowed, growing furious. She took a step forward, and yanked the comic out of Umino's eyes, and said, "How dare you!?"

"Hey!" Umino exclaimed indignantly. "Dare me!? Give that back!"

"No, way, you won't read this piece of trash!" Minako threatened.

Without noticing it himself, Umino slipped into a battle stance that Gohan had been hammering into him the passed few days. "I bought it, that's mine," Umino stated, getting pissed off, which was a rarity for the reserved geek - one should know, never mess with a guy's comics.

"Look, this is a big piece of trash," Minako said, holding the comic as if preparing to tear it to pieces. "Nothing but half-naked pictures to get people to buy it."

Umino was about ready to become physical, when Naru's hand brushed over his upper left arm and he calmed down, looking surprised at his girlfriend, and even more so when he saw the cold look in the gentle girl's eyes. "Give that back to him right now," Naru growled out, an enraged look in her eyes.

"Listen . . ." Minako tried to appeal to her fellow girl, but it fell on deaf ears.

"No, _/you/_ listen," Naru hissed out angrily. "Umino likes the comic book, and I will not have some two bit bimbo decide what _/my/_ is or is _/not/_ allowed to read, and some bitch from another school, most _/certainly/_ will not damage _/his/_ property. Got that!?" Everyone looked with surprise at the quiet girl, who was had now locked her cold fury onto Minako's eyes, the two in a tug of wills. Apparently messing with the sweet girl's boyfriend was one way to get her to unleash a hitherto hidden wrath. "_/Give/. /It./ /Back./_"

"Always the quiet ones," Rei muttered under her breath, to soft for anyone to hear.

Minako was certain Naru really wasn't a threat to her, but she really didn't want to find out, her resolve wavering with every moment that the protective anger was trained on her. Slowly, gently Minako handed the comic back to Umino, which caused Naru's anger to rapidly deflate. Umino wearily took the comic, and said, "It's actually got a very good story, Minako-chan. And I don't know what the big deal is, Usagi's was ready her copy at lunch, I don't see you being angry with her."

"No!" Usagi exclaimed, and then swallowed hard, taking an involuntary step back, and growing pale.

Minako suddenly stood utterly still. Her gaze darkened by the moment. Finally it slowly turned to Usagi, and she growled out slowly, "_/Usagi/_." Usagi waved her hands in front of her as if it would be enough to keep the angry girl off of her, or make her seem innocent. "_/What/_ did I tell you!?"

"Hey, guys," Gohan interrupted Minako's mounting anger tactfully. Ami was next to him, and she looked rather perturbed at the scene. Gohan in the meantime gave Umino an approving smile. "So what's up?"

With a huff and a growl Minako took the comic away from Umino again, and handed it over to Gohan. "Look at that, and tell me you don't want it stopped!" Minako said, thinking she had an ally in the equally defiled Gohan.

The half-Saiyan took the book and casually leafed through it. "So what's so bad about it?" Gohan asked still leafing onward.

"The cheap nudity . . ."

"Partial," Gohan corrected.

Minako went on undeterred, " . . . cheap gimmick, two super heroes falling love, and then produced book all for the excuse to show them naked . . ."

"Partially," Umino now interrupted.

Once again Minako went on as if uninterrupted, " . . . exploiting real actual people, just to sell lots of comics." Minako pointedly did not name the whole 'and you and I are the ones being exploited' bit with Naru present.

Gohan shrugged, no understanding, "Isn't this what's happening constantly, what's so bad about this if you have no problem with all the others."

"Those are stories, this is porn," Minako bit back.

Gohan reached the last page, took in the naked backside of 'Sailor Z', compared it with the clad version he'd seen peaking from under her super short skirt and realized the two were nothing alike. For one thing, Minako was in her mid teens and developing into a beautiful woman, while the version of her on the page was already in her mid twenties. Gohan shrugged, handed the comic back to Umino, and said, "That isn't porn, it's actually pretty tastefully drawn, it's practically artwork. I've got no problem with it."

"You hear that, you're the only one making a fuss," Naru said, putting her arm around Umino's waste. She was still somewhat niffed, but pleased when she realized that she had talked Minako down, and helped protect her boyfriend's possession. She looked at the comic, and Umino opened it. She looked it over, and then whispered something into Umino's ear, showing she was by no means offended.

Minako realized that she didn't have a leg to stand on, if the other one in the comic saw no problem with the thing. Annoyed she stomped off into the directory of the shrine, and all but Naru followed her, Umino taking a bit longer saying goodbye to the girl.

*****

Elsewhere Ridish managed to dock his shuttle back to the mother ship. He slowly got out of craft, staggering. He wasn't really hurt, the medical technology had taken care of that, but healing up so fast had drained him of his energy. He needed food and drink, but that could wait, he would report to his master first.

Several minutes later he arrived on the bridge, the middle chair - practically a throne - swivelled around and the bull alien regarded him coldly. Ridish dropped to his knees, and said, "Forgive me, I failed, the boy beat me."

"Boy?" the bull growled gently.

"Dimwu and Jarbal didn't say, but their warrior was a boy, he killed Dimwu," Ridish answered his master. "His power was incredible, he beat me with ease, sir."

"A boy!?" the bull once again grumbled.

Ridish nodded, then looked up, fear in his eyes, the Bull regarded him closely, obvious he saw the change in his old friend. "He said he was a Saiyan. But that can't be, that's insane. They are legend, myth, and if they aren't, they've been extinct for eons."

The bull gave a chuckle, and told him, "Trust me the Saiyans are no mere myth." Everyone on the bridge looked somewhat shocked at their commander's revelation, but Ridish obviously wasn't finished, but he was also hesitant. "Talk," the bull ordered.

"It makes no sense, sir, he must have been . . . I don't know," Ridish answered and looked up in his master's eyes. They were cold, and demanded an answer. "His hair turned golden, and he said he was a Legendary Super Saiyan. It's a load of bullshit, the Saiyans themselves are legend, that's . . ." Ridish stopped looking as he watched the facial expression change, into one he'd never seen before. The bull's eyes sparkled with mirth, desire, life . . . Ridish had never seen it on his bull-like friend.

The bull slowly got up out of his chair, and he looked up, seemingly at something only he could see. He bared his teeth in a grin, and he said, as if filled with awe, "Ten thousand years ago, when I was but a boy, the Saiyans were already legend, but nobody questioned the reality of that legend; they were real. Even then an extinct race of warriors that massacred their way across the galaxy. Power inconceivable to me then, and to others, part of it still for me now: capable of destroying whole planets, but they weren't few and far between like with us, in this day of age - no . . . a whole species with that kind of power. But there was a legend, one that existed among the Saiyans, and thus among us; a legend so frightening people dismissed it, or just thought it was an exaggeration. The Legendary Super Saiyan. A saiyan with so unimaginable amount of power he could obliterated planets with the energy in its pinky, a Saiyan that grew massively in strength by fighting, and even just breathing. A Super Saiyan as the legend went, could wipe out an entire army of Saiyans with a single blast: simply unstoppable . . . a ruthless killing machine - if one is here." The bull gave a chuckle, and then smiled with anticipation.

"But it can't be, they're extinct," Ridish said in shock, slowly everyone present starting to get afraid of the concept.

"Indeed, _/here/_ they are extinct, but how about in another dimension, another reality, yes." The bull suddenly whipped around, and ordered, "Set course for that planet, maximum velocity, now!"

"But, sir, what about the diplomatic meeting down below? We were supposed to escort the 'ambassador' back to his home," one of the bull's crewmen asked.

"Ah, yes, thank you, I almost forgot," the bull said with a grin, and walked over to a window in the side of the bridge. He squeaked the handles, they hadn't been used in ages, and he casually threw it open. The air immediately rushed out, the crewmen grabbing a hold of whatever they could. The bull stuck his arm through, aimed his open palm at the planet and with a grin fired a beam of energy that rapidly grew in size. A few moments later in struck the planet, and drilled through it an instant. The bull laughed as cracks started forming across the entire planet, glowing orange with the lava coming to the surface. The crewman watched in shock as storms raged across the entire planet, and massive super electric bolts flew out from the core of the planet tearing it apart from the inside out. More cracks formed, and a huge part broke free and was launched into air, rapidly reaching toward space. A rapidly growing number of parts of the planet started to shake loose. The bull pulled his hand back inside, closed the window, and said, "I believe they just came to the mutual agreement to die." He laughed hard at his own joke then.

"Move, maximum velocity, unless you want to get hit by a stray piece of planet," the bull commanded irritably as he walked over to his throne and sat back down.

"Yes, sir," the helmsmen said and the ship flew away, going to FTL speeds soon after. The planet exploded at around the same time, sending debris flying everywhere, no ship managed to escape the planet's destruction.

"You are aware General Megamac will come for us, do you, sir?" one crewman nervously, but politely asked.

The bull laughed out loud, and answered, "Neither he, nor you have ever seen my full power. If the fool thinks he can stop me, he's going to be mightily surprised when I blow away his pathetic, little army." The crewmen all went to their business.

*****

Back on Earth

Gohan ducked underneath a greatly improved punch from Mamoru and smashed both his open palms into his stomach, sending him staggering backward. Gohan smoothly parried a blow from Sailor Moon, and then pulled her along, sending her sailing through the air and crashing against the wall off the shrine. She groaned in frustration and a little pain at the impact. She preferred to stay down, but seeing her boyfriend preparing to attack Gohan again, and not wanting to look like a wimp to him, she started to get back up as well.

Venus' Crescent Beam Gohan casually swatted aside, and beat the girl back with an elbow. Then he jumped up, and turned three quarters of a circle clockwise, and stretched out his right foot, catching Jupiter in a perfectly aimed spin kick. She was launched off her feet, circled through the air before crashing to the floor. Gohan grabbed Umino's punch, twisted his arm - just far and hard enough to hurt, but not to injure - and sent him back with a kick. He let a ki shield handle a fireball from Mars, and then blocked Mamoru's kick with his right arm. Sailor Moon charged, but before she could reach Gohan, the boy yelled out, his ki flared and shot outward from him. All of the fighters were forced off their feet, and pushed back until they were held up against the wall and Gohan's life energy.

Gohan took a calming breath, as the others groaned in frustration. Then he let his power drop and with it all his friends dropped unceremoniously to the floor, eliciting several 'ows'. "Not bad," Gohan commented with a satisfied smile. "Not bad at all, not where I want you to be by the time I leave, but certainly on your way there. Good." Then he pointed downward, at his feet that were twenty centimeters off the floor. "_/That/_ seriously needs to improve thought. You're all still thinking like grounded people, it's time you start to use your flying abilities in your fights."

The team of heroes - recently expanded with three new members, two of them male and not in sailor costumes - looked at the gap between Gohan and the floor. Sailor Pluto groaned in annoyance, realizing she had stayed on the ground the whole time, like the others. "Dang, flying while fighting, it's just unnatural," Ami complained, and the others nodded.

"Not to me, it isn't, and neither will it be to your enemies. It's time you start considering it natural as well," Gohan said, and made a frown. "All right, as training, you are all are going to fly whenever you walk next week. You'll float just above ground and make simple walking motions, making it look like you're walking, that should get you acquainted with flight." His friends looked at him, and then nodded uncertain.


	11. Chapter 11: Battle for a Universe

_Chapter 11: Battle for a Universe_

A week had passed, and Gohan had stepped up the training some mightily. He had explained about gravity, and gotten the Sailor Senshi to use their magic to increase gravity within their training room. He had told them they couldn't do it for every potential training ground, so it would be wise to keep their eyes open from now on to a technical means. They enjoyed each other's company, went to a movie together, generally hung out. Umino telling Naru - and demonstrating by flying around - what he had been doing, and thus also Usagi finally telling her best friend her secret had been an emotional roller coaster ride that had brought them all closer together. Setsuna, the Sailor Soldier of Pluto and time, was the only exception, she stayed away from the others as good as possible, evidently showing a reverence of Usagi, the future queen of Earth, providing that was still going to happen with the future irrevocably changed.

But all then was going to come to an end soon. Bulma was quickly finishing her brand new fully functional personnel transport interdimensional ship, and a completely different starship entered Earth's solar system. Fifteen minutes later it arrived in Earth's orbit. Ridish looked questioningly at his teacher. The bull smiled and said, "I'm going to let him come to me. Tactical, science, that city there, right smack in the middle, any interdimensional signatures?"

"No, nothing, sir, according to local broadcasts, it's called Moscow," the guy at the sensor control replied.

"Level it," the bull said with a smirk.

"Yes, sir," the guy at tactical answered, and pushed a button. There was a sound of something discharging, and then a ball of energy was fired from the ship's weapons port. It rushed down to the Earth with incredible speed, and then crashed in the middle of Moscow. Instantly there was a bright flash, and then a massive explosion. A mushroom cloud, and the shockwave rapidly shot out from the center. Minutes later there was nothing left of the once great city.

The bull grinned and looked over at the guy at the sensors. "They know, sir, they are all accusing each other across the airwaves. The fools are actually starting their nuclear payloads to destroy themselves."

The bull laughed out loud at that, and then ordered, "Tap into their satellites, I want to broadcast around the entire little planet, also the other side, every frequency, and show them what's left of this Moscow first, so _/all/_ of them can see."

"Done," the guy answered, "You can talk."

The bull took a few steps menacingly forward, and said, "I am Taurusoon. I am the captain of the vessel in orbit of your pathetic little planet, and _/I/_ am the one who vaporized your city, the one you called Moscow. There is someone on your planet that is not of this dimension. He will contact me within the next ten of your minutes, or I will destroy another city, and ten minutes after that another, and then another, and another, until there are no more cities left. Ten minutes after that, I will destroy your entire planet and reduce it to an asteroid belt, unless he contacts me. You have my instructions; _/ten/_ minutes." He made a gesture, and the connection was severed. "Now we wait, I'm estimating five minutes before . . ."

"I'm getting a contact," the sensor guy interrupted.

"My, that's fast," Taurusoon stated, and gestured to the screen. A human face emerged, and he said, "I am the president of the United States of America, if you dare attack our country . . ." Taurusoon made another gesture and the screen went black. He looked over to the guy at the sensors and communications and ordered with an annoyed look, "Filter the ones who are not the boy." He got a nod.

*****

It was Saturday afternoon, and Gohan and the Sailor Soldiers, along with Umino and Naru had decided to watch a movie that was on at Ami's place. The screen went blank and then switched to a view of horrible destruction right in the middle of the movie. They looked with shock as the view changed to a bull's head, except it talked. The reason why quickly became apparent - it was an alien. An alien that just destroyed Moscow, and wanted to talk to Gohan.

"How can someone be that evil?" Naru whispered in shock at the tv.

Gohan got up resolutely, and walked to the exit of the room. The sailor soldiers and their cats looked at the screen for a few more moments, watching their movie go away, and making place for emergency news broadcasts. Then they got up, and followed Gohan.

*****

"Sir, this frequency is very different from the rest - FTL," a guy announced.

Taurusoon stood up with a wide grin on his face, his eyes sparkling with bloodlust. "On screen," he ordered.

The boy's face emerged on the screen from a place that was obviously small and lived in. "I am Son Gohan, you wanted to talk to me," Gohan told him, his eyebrows down with anger.

"What happened to Ninja Z?" the bull alien asked him with amusement.

"You are going to face _/me/_, and no construct," Gohan told him coolly.

Taurusoon gave a laugh, and then answered, "I don't want to talk to you at all, actually. Do you know what I want?"

"You want to fight me," Gohan stated, and the bull nodded. "Fifteen minutes, on the plains northeast outside of Tokyo, the city your little boy over there fought me in."

"Perfect," the bull growled with an evil grin, "Oh, don't to try to flee, not even to your own dimension. You do, and I'll destroy this planet."

"Don't worry, I don't flee - I win," Gohan returned and severed the connection.

"Yes," Taurusoon breathed out in a rush of anticipation.

"All right then, we'll start . . ." Ridish started.

Taurusoon thundered over him, stopping his statement instantly, "NO!!" He looked around the bridge once, and then added, "_/This/_ is between him and me, and _/no/_ one else. You will not interfere, not if I seem to be losing, not if I'm winning. Just _/him/_ and _/me/_. I don't care what you do after the fight, but you will not interfere during it. You do, any of you so much as cough into mine or his direction during the fight, and I will tear you all limb from limb, understand?"

The bridge crew nodded. The bull turned to his yellow compatriot, and added for good measure, "_/No/ /one/_."

"Yes, sir," Ridish answered, and Taurusoon then stalked off the bridge. He went to the middle ship, and stepped into the airlock without bothering with an environment suit. The lock closed, rapidly pumped the air away, and then opened out the outside. Taurusoon grinned, and blasted off to the planet.

*****

Gohan gave his friends a look. They seemed a little scared. Then he disappeared into his bedroom. A few minutes later he came back out, just finishing putting on his red belt around his waste. He wore his piccolo style outfit: red sweat bands were around his wrists, purple gi, brown cloth shoes, and the spacey white cape.

"You stay out of this, this is far beyond your abilities," Gohan stated matter-of-factly, wanting his friends out of harm's way. From what little he felt from this guy, that was obviously hiding most of his power, he was seriously powerful; as powerful as a Super Saiyan, at least.

"No, we come along," Sailor Moon said without a moment's hesitation, a sliver of command in her voice.

Gohan wanted to argue, but the resolved faces on his friends and their cats made it obvious: debating was not an option. They were coming whether he wanted to or not. He briefly considered knocking them unconscious, but then said, "Fine, just promise me you leave the moment I say things really are too dangerous for you to stay." Sailor Mercury was about to protest, but Gohan looked at her with an equal resolved face, and added, "There's no debate, you promise me you leave when I say so, or I knock you unconscious now."

"We will leave when you say so," the white cat Artemis replied, and reluctantly the heroines nodded their agreement.

"Let's go then," Gohan said. The girls nodded, and got out their transformation pens, said the words and transformed together in a brilliant display of lights.

*****

With Sailor Moon carrying Luna, and Sailor Venus carrying Artemis, the six warriors flew across Tokyo. The girls marveled at their new found skill, flying for the first time in open air. They however were not fast enough to get to the outer plains within the fifteen minutes allotted them, and so halfway there, Gohan enveloped them all in his ki flame and burst forward dragging them all along.

When they arrived - still two minutes left for the deadline - Taurusoon was already there. The bull looked massive, lean, two meters forty centimeters tall - not counting the horns - and wearing a skintight, green tinted outfit: he was even bigger than Jarbal was. Its symbols were quite a bit different from the ones on the uniforms worn by the former attackers, undoubtedly indicating his status as leader. Finally a red cape hung from his shoulders. The alien's green outfit almost made him blend in with the green plains below the Fuji mountain. The volcano itself had a snow-covered top, was green below, and rocky in the middle.

Gohan walked toward the alien, while the girls stayed behind where they landed, afraid the frightening vision of the alien, and Rei shocked at the power it was emanating, even though it still wasn't at the level of the golden Super Saiyan Gohan.

"So, _/you/_ are a legendary Super Saiyan?" Taurusoon asked intrigued at the small boy.

[Play Gohan SSJ Battle Theme]

Gohan transformed easily, his hair now golden and his aura dancing tranquilly around him. Rei grabbed her head, and took a step back to steady herself, groaning. The training and her increase in power had made her far better able to handle it, but was still far from able to stand next to a Super Saiyan and not be overwhelmed.

"I am," Gohan confirmed.

The bull alien's smile deepened, looking Gohan over, his eyes sparkled with desire for battle. "So . . . any ideas on how to do this, other than to just . . . go?" Taurosoon asked with a big green.

Gohan looked him over, thinking. His power was enough to destroy this little planet easily, but that was all, the Bull still kept his secrets close. He remembered the things the future Usagi had said. From that he figured that she _/knew/_ this being was coming, and the fact that she could be born suggests he was going to win this. Correction, Taurusoon was going to be stopped, Gohan could die taking the bull along with him. Better not think like that, Gohan figured, don't try to get overconfident, because that and the foreknowledge could alter the outcome and let the bull win. Gohan was determined not to let that happen. "You seem to have evolved from a bovine species," Gohan said with confidence, the bull smirked. "I take it that means you can't breathe in space, thus you can't survive there indefinitely."

"That is a correct observation," Taurusoon answered, his grin perpetually on his face.

Gohan replied coldly, "Then you don't destroy the planet, nor the city, or the nearby villages and I won't do the same to your ship."

Taurusoon laughed hard at that, and said, "You're tough, I like that. You've got a deal."

Gohan nodded once, and stretched his arm out, pointing it at Tokyo. A moment later the city was covered in a dome of golden energy. Taurusoon did the same, strengthening Gohan's shield with a red one of his own, turning the dome golden orange. In a matter of seconds the villages close by were covered in similar domes of energy.

"You _/do/_ understand that if I win, I'll destroy this retched planet on principle alone, don't you?" Taurusoon asked with an evil grin.

Gohan sneered back, "The same goes for your ship." Gohan took his white cloak and slowly pulled it off, and threw it aside. It landed with a heavy thud, indicating its weight.

"That's the kind of talk I expected from a Saiyan," the bull replied, and did the same thing with his cape and went into a battle stance. The two carefully appraised each other for a few moments, and then - as if someone had fired a starting shot - the two blasted at each other and started a furious exchange of blows and kicks. As they did, they slowly rose in the air, their bodies visible to the team of heroic girls, but not the arms and legs, they were nothing but a continuing blur.

Suddenly Gohan flashed backward, and charged an energy beam, yelling, "KAMEHAMEHA!" The massive beam of energy flashed forward going straight at Taurusoon. The bull grinned, reached into the beam, let all the energy gather around him, and then sent the beam right back. Gohan raised his power some, and squatted the beam up into space. "Very impressive," Gohan told him. "Hardly anyone I know can do that, the few who can live in a very energy rich dimension, or are taught by them."

Taurusoon chuckled, and said, "In ten thousand years you tend to pick up stuff."

Gohan's mouth quirked into a Saiyan battle smirk, and powering up some more he said, "Good, then it's time to start putting some effort into it, don't you agree?"

"Oh, most certainly," Taurusoon grinned. The two flew at each other again, and started trading blows.

Gohan caught his hand and threw him over his shoulder. Taurusoon in turn gripped Gohan's arm tightly and continued the motion, firing an energy blast after him. But Gohan held onto Taurusoon's arm and twisted sideways. The energy blast rocketed past him, crashed into ground, where it exploded with such massive force, the shockwave knocked the Sailor Soldiers off their feet. Gohan was now perpendicular to the bull and kicked out. The kick connected to the Bull's stomach and he groaned in pain. Gohan followed up with a devastating uppercut that sent the bull upward. Taurusoon rapidly regained control and punched into the stomach of the advancing Gohan, following up with a left and a right cross connecting with Gohan's face. Suddenly Gohan fired an energy blast, that exploded on Taurusoon's torso. The might of the explosion sent him careening to the ground. He crashed, and with another mighty explosion a giant crater was formed.

The bull shook his head to clear it, and looked astonished as Gohan came hurtling down. Gohan's food crashed into the tenderized stomach of Taurusoon, who doubled over slightly, still lying there. "That's it," he growled, and whipped himself straight as he powered up, launching Gohan into the air like he was a trampoline. Then he blasted upward after the Super Saiyan.

The Sailor Soldiers looked on with astonishment at the battle, and the raw power and speed both warriors were exuding, and both of them seeming to enjoy every moment of it.

Within Tokyo, it was obvious the press had gotten wind of it. The camera teams of different news networks could not get beyond the shield. So that is where they gathered. One reporter was saying, as she tapped the shield once, "It seems the alien or even alien_/s/_ have captured the whole of Tokyo within this dome of energy." Just then a stray energy ball crashed just beyond the camera teams into the dome and exploded with blinding power. "Or perhaps it's for our protection," she said blinking her eyes to get rid of the glare. "The two beings are battling each other just beyond Tokyo on the plains between the city and the volcano Mount Fuji. Let's just take a look." The camera turned to the battle, just as both fighters slowed down enough not to be just blurs and Gohan threw a destructo disc at the alien. He narrowly avoided the super sharp disc and it cut through the top of a smaller mountain that was part of the Fuji mountainous region. The top lost its foundation, and crumbled down the rest of the mountain. "My god," the woman said in some shock as the once mountain was reduced to rumble, and right after the two fighters once again became blurs as they arced through the sky, battling each other.

Taurusoon had enough of this, and powered up rapidly suddenly, caught two of Gohan's arms, who looked up at the bull in frustration as he tried in vain to free his arms. The bull smashed his head forward, headbutting the half-Saiyan - the angle making it impossible to use his horns. He threw Gohan's arms wide, and with a massive double kick Gohan was launched down to the ground. He came across Mount Fuji however, and smashed into it, rock exploding outward. A moment later a small part of the massive volcano crumbled and buried Gohan under rock.

[Stop Gohan SSJ Battle theme]

The bull landed down upon the plains, folding his arms across his chest and chuckled.

"GOHAN, NO!!" Sailor Moon screamed out, amid similar screams of fear and horror from her team mates.

Taurusoon looked over to the girls, moving just his head, and sneered, "If you think a little mountain falling on top of a being of his caliber can hurt him - you're even more pathetic than I thought."

The girls looked at him, but he had turned his head back to the mountain already. So did the girls. A golden glow slowly formed around the rubble, and then suddenly the rubble was pulverized and small pieces of debris were launched away, revealing Gohan - powered up even more, and his arms and hands diagonally stretched out above his head. Suddenly he blinked out and reappeared only a few meters away from the bull alien, on the opposite side of the girls. Gohan looked pissed.

"Legendary Super Saiyan, huh? I'm disappointed," Taurusoon growled out.

Gohan smirked suddenly, and as he folded his arms across his chest, he answered, "I must admit, Super Saiyan isn't _/that/_ powerful." Taurusoon snorted, obviously annoyed as hell. Gohan's smirk deepened, and said, "Whether I'm the first ever who did it or not, I don't know, but I have ascended _/beyond/_ the legendary Super Saiyan."

"Really?" the bull alien asked intrigued.

Gohan gave a nod, and then his smirk disappeared. He looked behind him, and told his friends, "Get out of here, now. I'm going to have to take it up a notch. This is _/far/_ beyond your abilities. You didn't belong here before, you certainly do not now."

"But . . ." Makoto started.

"No BUTS! You _/promised/_!" Gohan called to them. Taurusoon looked at the proceedings with amusement.

The Soldiers nodded and then grasped hands. Each called upon the power of their planet, then gave a final united yell, "Sailor Teleport!" The girls and the two cats disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared on a tall building in the outskirts of Tokyo, so they could watch the rest of the battle.

"Well then, show me what you've got," Taurusoon said with an anticipating smirk.

[Start Gohan SSJ2 theme]

Gohan's power skyrocketed, and then yelled out. One shockwave cracked the ground below his feet, a starlike pattern emerging, the grass shredded instantly. As his power rose and rose, the ground and even the continental plate on which he was standing started to shake and rumble. His hair went straight up on his head, except one strand that fell in front of his face. The golden ki flame pulsed with greater intensity, even as bolts of electricity started to form in it. His muscles tensed, his hands balled into fists at the height of his waist, and then with a shockwave of energy, which sent debris flying everywhere his transformation to the second level of the Super Saiyan - which in all took less then two seconds - was complete.

On the building where the girls had teleported to, Rei grabbed her head and groaned out in pain the moment Gohan's power rose. She staggered back and then dropped to her knees. Screaming out for a moment. Minako and Usagi were at her side in an instant, and all of them looked in the direction of the battle. They looked in shock as a powerful dome of golden energy rapidly expanded from what had to be Gohan. Large pieces of ground and rock were pulled along like they weighed nothing, and they fully grasped why Gohan wanted them gone. The dome crashed into Mount Fuji and it cracked on the power, a large tear ripping through the side of the mountain facing the shockwave. "Incredible!" Rei whispered in shock. She knew the shield that the two were generating around Tokyo kept most of their power away from her, and yet still, Gohan's power brought her to her knees.

"Indeed," Makoto muttered shocked as the rumbling gently grew in volume.

"It's been almost three hundred years since it erupted," Ami said in shock as the snowy top visibly started to melt. Then with another explosion Mount Fuji blew its top. The upper part of the mountain was simply destroyed in the explosion, then a thick black plume of smoke rapidly rose above the mountain, quickly visible throughout the island of Japan. Lava started to flow downward, rock and debris was flung into the atmosphere. One such rock reached Tokyo, but harmlessly disintegrated on the powerful shield that protected the city.

Back at the battle ground, Taurusoon smirked, seeing his newly transformed enemy, and said, "Better, much better. So is the scenery. Much more appropriate, don't you think?" Then the bull's power rose, rapidly, the ground beneath his feet vibrated for a short while, and then Gohan knew he was at about the same power as he himself was. Gohan wasn't so stupid to assume that this was all the guy had, he'd been hiding a lot since the moment he got here. After a quick test with his senses, it was confirmed; the bull was still nowhere close to his real power, but what exactly his real power was Gohan still couldn't ascertain.

Under the vision of the erupting volcano the two combatants resumed their fight. Kicks and punches were thrown faster than human eyes could see. Taurusoon managed to land a punch into Gohan's stomach, causing him to rocket down to the Earth. He ignored the pain, and twisted around. He landed on his feet, and immediately launched himself back into the air, leaving a crater in the ground. The battle continued, the two blocking each other's punches and kicks continuously, and they moved closer to and finally into the mountain range. With every punch the super fast moving fighters threw, pieces of the mountains were launched into the air. Cracks formed, and finally some of the mountains simply broke up completely, being utterly destroyed. Gohan fired an energy ball suddenly, and Taurusoon squatted it up into space. He fired several of his own, Gohan squatted all but one into space. The last one he launched out to the ocean, where far away from Japan it finally landed and exploded. Instantly the air lit up, and the people in Tokyo could even see it. Not much later a giant mushroom cloud rose over the ocean.

Unbeknownst to the two super warriors, the ocean water at the beach slowly started receding. Gohan and Taurusoon were both in their elements; both were fighting like they'd hardly ever done before. Gohan blocked a kick and a punch, and then threw his own, which Taurusoon in his turn blocked and avoided. Gohan threw a left, which Taurusoon locked in a grip, and smashed his own left into Gohan's ribs. Then he did it again, and again, with each punch Gohan cried out in pain. Finally Gohan had had enough, with a roar he powered up further, and threw a massive uppercut with his right, that connected with the Bull's chin, thus forcing his left arm painfully out of the lock. Behind them a massive tsunami came from the pacific ocean, heading straight for the still protected Tokyo, but it was big enough to destroy practically the rest of Japan. Gohan was above the dazed Taurusoon and saw a potential opening, he charged an energy attack. "MASENKO-HA!!" he yelled and from his hands above his head he fired a massive ball of energy led by a powerful yellow beam. Taurusoon felt the beam coming, and blinked out of the way just in time. Thus the Masenko continued onward, smashing directly into Mount Fuji.

The next instant all was white, and the Sailor Soldiers and many others covered their eyes against the glare. Makoto was the first to open her eyes, and realizing she couldn't see a thing in the direction that was the fight, she turned to look at the giant tsunami hitting the beach of Tokyo. The giant wave crashed on the energy dome, and washed along it. Just as it reached the other side of the city, the shockwave from Gohan's Masenko arrived and collided with the wave. The wave crashed instantly, dropping away to the ground, most of it was blasted back to where it came from.

Once the shockwave and water had passed the girls looked back, and were shocked. "That was the end of Mount Fuji," Ami muttered in awe at the devastation. The entire mountain was gone, although the volcano was still active. Now the lava and smoke and debris was coming right out of the ground, undoubtedly starting to grow a new mountain. Gohan and the bull were still at it though, as if nothing had happened, both were just streaks of light to the girls, light that pushed aside the volcano smoke almost continuously.

"You were serious when you said Gohan could blow up the planet, weren't you?" Minako asked the knelt-down Rei who was still clutching her head.

"How long can they keep this up?" Usagi muttered in disbelief. "They've got to start tiring around now."

Rei shook her head weakly, which Usagi noticed and looked back down. "No," Rei groaned out, calling everyone's attention to her. "Their power is still growing. They're powering up continuously. They're nowhere near their max. They're not even breathing hard."

"You're kidding right?" Makoto asked with concern. Rei didn't answer. "Of course not."

Rei certainly wasn't kidding. With a yell Gohan connected a massive punch that sent the bull alien straight into the remains of Mount Fuji, making a big splash of lava. Taurusoon had enough of these games. He powered up by a large amount and burst forth from the lava pit. An instant later his elbow had Gohan doubled over. He followed up with a quick, but powerful uppercut, then several crosses, a knee, and then with an elbow he sent Gohan shooting down toward the plains. Gohan landed smoothly, and looked at Taurusoon.

[Stop Gohan SSJ2 theme]

The bull looked annoyed. He slowly lowered himself to the ground, his arms folded across his chest. He landed a few meters away from Gohan, and said with disappointment, "Is this all you've got? I'm not impressed."

Gohan took a deep breath, and said, "Remember how I told you I had ascended beyond the Super Saiyan? Well, I neglected to mention, that I have ascended beyond even that, and reached a whole new third level."

"Really?" Taurusoon asked, his voice a mixture of anticipation, dread and curiosity.

[Start Gohan's theme]

"Really," Gohan answered and bent gently through his knees, and crunched his torso. He placed his arms in an almost ninety degree angle, and suddenly his power boosted upward at an incredible rate. The ground cracked at his feet, and they didn't stay at tiny small cracks, the ground just tore open, and the cracks kept elongating and also deepening, proven by the lava suddenly come bubbling and spurting up from them. The whole plain was rapidly cracking open with more and more cracks, creating small islands of rock and sand and grass from between which lava spurt up. Then Gohan started screaming, and his power burst out like a super nova.

*****

"Holy shit," Ridish muttered in disbelief, looking at the screen in front of him. The entire planet shook and vibrated. Obliterating planets was one thing, but making a planet shake in its orbit, while just powering up was another thing all together. "Not seen his max is right."

"It's not our master," the man at the sensors announced, making everyone whip their heads toward him. "It's the boy, the Super Saiyan."

"Fuck," Ridish commented fearfully.

*****

Rei screamed, tossing and turning, and holding her head. Minako and Usagi held her tightly, afraid she was going to hurt herself. The others looked at the scene with dropped jaws. Pitch black clouds formed over Tokyo, lightning flashing down repeatedly onto the plains with Gohan. The city started rumbling, buildings started cracking, just replaced windows shattered with ease. Even the shield couldn't protect the city if the entire planet itself was shaking.

*****

Gohan's power grew, his hair slowly elongated, the electric bolts growing in intensity and frequency. Taurusoon looked on with a dropped jaw, taking a few involuntary steps back. Gohan's continuing scream was primal, his being was tranquil, balanced, everything inside of him poised to make this powerful transformation. The ground was being blasted away from him.

*****

"I cannot believe this!" the reporter called out overpowering the rumbling with some difficulty, on millions of tv screens.

At that moment the screen went black, and they switched back to the studio. "We have temporarily lost image with Tokyo," the anchor said, his face obviously worried, as the studio around vibrated. "There are reports of Earthquakes all over the planet, more like the whole planet is shaking one expert has reported. Volcanoes are erupting in many places, even new volcanoes are being created in some places. Several tidal waves have been detected that are headed toward many coastal areas . . ." A lamp crashed from the sealing and smacked to the floor next to the anchor, a ladder fell over, and the anchor had difficulty keeping his wheeled chair in place. Behind him the screen once again showed Tokyo, and with a gesture it was brought to the main screen.

"Of all the gods, people," the reporter continued in a shocked voice and face. Behind her the sky was now truly black, and some of the cracks reached the ocean. The water rushed in, and once it hit the red-hot lava it was turned to vapor instantly. Jest of vapor and superheated water shot upward, occasionally pushing rocks along.

*****

Gohan's hair reached his to below his behind, halfway to his knees. One hair still hung in front of his face. Gohan's hair moved of its own accord under the influence of all that energy. His eyebrows retracted into his skin. His brows slowly protruded a little, and his pupils became visible again, turning to a slighter darker shade of green than the rest of his eyes. Then Gohan stood up, finishing the transformation with his arms stretched behind him. A colossal shockwave of energy left him once he was finished. The golden wave rapidly spread itself around a large part of the planet's surface, frightening and calming people where it went, and it leveled a large part of the remains of the nearby mountain range.

[Stop Gohan's theme]

Gohan returned to a more normal stance, and looked at Taurosoon staring at him in disbelief and some fear. The electric discharges came almost continuously now, charging through the intense flame of energy. On occasion a powerful crack of lightning arced in the flame and blasted out of it. "Super Saiyan 3," Gohan told him, his voice unnaturally low and almost in a perpetual growl. "What do you think now? Impressed yet?"

"Incredible," Taurusoon answered, his mouth quirked upward just a bit, "such power. It's been so long, I'd forgotten what it's like on the outside." Then he laughed, hard and out loud, no evil, pure enjoyment. He stopped his laughter, and he screamed out, "FINALLY A CHALLEEENNGGEEE!!" His power rose to proportions equal to that of Super Saiyan 3 instantly, a massive red / purple ki flame bursting around him as he roared with release. The storm above them was snuffed out by his energy, the clouds pushed aside revealing blue sky. With his power up as well, the ground cracked open like an overripe egg, one tear going all the way to the shield surrounding Tokyo where it stopped abruptly.

*****

The girls looked at the display of power, and the devastation in awe. "Kami," Makoto whispered in shock, slowly realizing that there probably hadn't ever been one that could rival the two in power. Another powerful lightning flash and thunder came from Super Saiyan 3 Gohan.

"AAAH!!" Rei screamed out one last time, and then calmed down, but still clutched her head in pain. "Oh, kami, oh, gods almighty," she muttered, tears streaming from her eyes with the pain. "How . . . how can they be this powerful? They could tear apart . . . space and time."

Minako and Usagi, still carefully holding Rei gave each other a shocked look, and looked over at Gohan squaring off with the bull alien.

*****

[Play Gohan SSJ3 Battle theme]

The two super warriors stood across from each other, sizing each other up. Taurusoon's face was contorted in a contented grin. Gohan's face was more serious, contemplating the continuation of the battle, but he wore the Saiyan battle smirk unconsciously. *Finally he stopped hiding,* Gohan thought. *This is all he's got. He's still got a little reserve left, but so do I, and I'll have to finish this quickly. I don't have much time in this form. A problem he undoubtedly doesn't share.*

Taurusoon's smile deepened, and then shot forward directly at Gohan. Gohan burst forth himself, the two titanic powers colliding with punches that both blocked. At this level and power, no matter how much control, the physical and energetic shockwaves were simply so great they produced audible shockwaves. The two of them continued onward, speeding so fast they were reduced to see-through streaks if they were visible at all. After two exchanged blows the storm once again started up, the pitch black clouds - partially from the ashes of the volcano - and the lightning strikes among which the warriors fought among gave a fearsome effect.

The two flew with enormous speeds across the plains. Gohan threw a right punch, with Taurusoon blocked. His follow up kick to Gohan's chin connected, and Gohan allowed the his body snapping back by the impact to pull him into a backward somersault, and kicked out with both his feet catching Taurusoon directly in his own chin. The impact was powerful enough to send him up into the air. Gohan sped after him, appearing right above him, and twisting his body for another devastating kick that connected with the bull's stomach. Taurusoon was sent hurtling down to the ground, where the mountain range once stood. He crashed with great speed, the impact created a giant crater easily a kilometer across and half deep. Gohan sped after him, straight down, and crashed with his right foot onto the bull's stomach. The alien groaned in pain, then he smiled, and roared out. The energy sent Gohan upward off of him, and he flew after the boy. A punch connected and dazed Gohan for a moment, allowing Taurusoon to ram a knee into the boy's stomach. Gohan doubled over, and was given a head butt, then another punch across his face. Gohan used an opening, he grabbed Taurusoon's left arm as he punched, and twisted him through the air.

Taurusoon flew down again, and Gohan fired an energy blast him, after which the boy flew straight at him. The alien squatted aside the blast, and blocked Gohan's follow up punch. Gohan's left kick connected with the alien's thigh though and he roared in pain. It left Gohan's middle unprotected, and with rapid uppercut Gohan was sent flying upward. Taurusoon flashed behind Gohan and kicked him down with enormous power, and immediately started firing energy blasts down after Gohan. Each one was the same red, blue and white core balls of destruction that Jarbal had used to try and destroy Tokyo weeks before. Although they were fired with one hand and were smaller, each was far more powerful than the one Jarbal had used. Gohan avoided the first, waved quickly to the left and avoided the second and so on. When the balls hit the Earth, they exploded massively, a shockwave of energy shooting across the land, tearing everything away that it came across. The bull made sure most of the explosive force was sent straight up in the atmosphere; he had no intention to suffocate to death, and had the blasts been without control each one would have surely destroyed the planet. The two warriors were far enough away from Tokyo at this point they couldn't be seen from there. Gohan continuously avoided the massive blasts of energy that destroyed everything in their wake. Even so far away from Tokyo, the explosions were big enough to be seen in Tokyo. Mushroom cloud after mushroom cloud blossomed behind the remainder of the mountains, shockwaves rolling along the debris filled air. The last ball of destruction that impacted before Gohan stepped in, was close to the coast several hundred kilometers away from Tokyo, and reduced a once piece of Japan to a large crater that rapidly filled with ocean water.

The next ball Gohan took in his hands, charged the kamehameha wave and blasted it with the ball of energy back at Taurusoon. Immediately after he sent two destructo discs. The bull was taken by surprise by the sudden reversal, and raised a ki shield around himself, hands in front of his chest. He took the explosion head on, and depleted a lot of energy on his shield, but he was still going strong. He then twisted aside, barely avoiding the discs of death that had come his way. Gohan had underestimated the bull's agility a little - by no means did he expect the discs to hit, but he expected Taurusoon to be at least occupied enough he could land a solid punch. Instead the bull twisted in the air, and kicked out mightily, straight into Gohan's stomach, then followed up with a double handed hammer that sent Gohan straight down to the ground.

Gohan twisted around, slowed down his descent and landed back in the lava fields right outside of Tokyo. Taurusoon landed there a moment later, grinning enthusiastically. He reached down, and Gohan reached up, both their hands clasping in each other and both started squeezing their power going up. The continental plate shook and rumbled under their power. Their ki flames mingling, fighting each other. Both roared out, and their energy lashed outward, tearing away some more rock and sand. Pillars, pieces of Earth's crust rose around them, lighting flashed and rumbled. The plains were suddenly turned into a labyrinth, then both warriors rose as the ground they stood upon themselves rose up.

Taurusoon looked into the cool gaze of the super saiyan in front and somewhat below him, as the planet rumbled under the power both put out. The protruding eyebrows gave Gohan a primitive look. Taurusoon felt a rush of fear, a shiver run through him, he might very well die fighting this boy. He welcomed the sensation, he hadn't felt something like this in ages. For the first time in almost two millennia he felt alive again, as well as a strange kinship with this golden-haired hero. "You know, Gohan," he said with a giant grin. "I was once like you. I was a hero to my people; I was the strongest, nobody could beat me. Any enemy I'd beat. I saved people's lives. It was grand, until I looked around me one day, and saw only insects; weak pathetic fools I could crush whenever I want to. I still guarded my species of course, but it came more and more annoying to have to listen to the weaklings cries of need and pitifulness. So I left my planet, branched out, saw the galaxy, the universe, annoyed at the others. I found the universe teeming with more insects, more weaklings, and I realized they were designed to bow before me and to lay their eyes upon my magnificence - of course soon that bored me to death as well. I returned to my home planet, hoping for some peace, but got nothing but yammering, so I blew up the whole planet myself. And you know what, boy? Sooner or later you'll see the same thing. You are just too powerful for your friends, and family, and the others. They are weak, they are nothing, and you can't help but notice that. Sooner or later you'll understand that, and you'll be like me."

"I will _/never/_ be like you," Gohan hissed out, his long hair carefully flowing of their own accord.

The bull's grin deepened, and said, "I knew you were going to say that, you see, I told the same thing to an alien that wanted to destroy _/my/_ world who told the same truth right before I destroyed him."

Gohan gnawed his teeth together in fury at the bull's story. Frustrated he roared out, and immediately his power rose. Suddenly Gohan flashed forward and rammed his knee into Taurusoon's stomach who doubled over in pain, and Gohan hissed, "_/I/_ will _/never/_ be like _/you/_!"

Gohan followed up with an uppercut that connected smoothly sending the bull upward. Then, quickly, he performed a technique that was very unexpected. Gohan bent over, groaned, and then suddenly two more Super Saiyan 3 Gohans pulled themselves free from his back, and hovered next to him. Taurusoon stopped his ascent and looked down. His eyes widened in shock, then grinned as he raised his power, and said, "Impressive, most impressive. But each one of you has only a third of the power."

*****

"Uh, how?" Makoto muttered in disbelief and shock as she saw Gohan split in three. She had thought she'd be done being surprised, but once again Gohan had pulled off a feat that shouldn't be possible, but apparently was. Next to her, Ami seemed equally befuddled at the turn of events. The display of skill and power - the storm had begun raging with an even greater intensity, the ocean seemed like a wild uncontrolled animal with enormous waves, and the remains of Mount Fuji - and volcanoes around the rest of the world - were still raging.

The others looked on with equal astonishment, to say nothing of the people around the world watching their tv sets, through every channel, they all showed the same event.

"This is insane," Usagi summed up quite nicely watching the incredible battle through which the fate of her entire universe was decided.

*****

The three Gohans were attacking Taurusoon with great intensity and perfect teamwork. They pummeled the bull over and over, with kicks and punched. But that only lasted so long. Taurusoon started seeing through Gohans' patterns and triple fighting skills, and started landing his own punches. The Gohans got frustrated and raised their energies more and more, while they got more and more punches, kicks, and energy blasts against them. It was then that Taurusoon started wondering why the boy with such exceptional skill didn't change his obviously flawed tactics, it was then that Gohan made his move, and the alien realized he had been duped into too locked a pattern to have an answer to Gohan's sudden shift in gears.

The three Gohan's suddenly pulled back from Taurusoon, flying next to each other. They had their arms stretched out, energy crackling at their finger tips. "FINAL . . .!!" sounded from three voices at the same time, just as the two outer Gohans rapidly went to the middle and merged back with him. " . . . FLASH!!!" Gohan finished and blasted the massive beam of energy directly at Taurusoon.

The bull alien tried to defend himself, but he was completely unable to against the sudden reappearance of Gohan's full might in one blast. "NOOOO!!!" he screamed out defiantly one last time, as the energy tore into his body and shredded it. Pieces of him were flung in all directions as the powerful beam of energy continued onward into space where after a while it harmlessly dissipated. The orange shields surrounding Tokyo and the nearby villages snapped to gold the moment Taurusoon died.

[Stop Gohan SSJ3 Battle theme]

Gohan hung there for a few moments, a satisfied look on his features, Super Saiyan 3 transformation still in full effect. Then Gohan slowly turned his head, straight toward where he sensed Taurusoon's mothership. Gohan stretched out a hand, and fired a ball of energy.

*****

"Shields up!" Ridish commanded fearfully.

"They are up . . ." someone managed before the ship, despite its shields, was torn apart and exploded.

*****

Gohan was satisfied: the battle was over, he had won and was still alive. He looked down at the devastation the battle had done to the country that had been his home for the past couple of months. He sighed with sadness, seeing multiple volcanoes erupting all over the island - and he knew this was true for the entire world, and cities there would not be protected by the shields he was still carefully keeping around the places here.

"It's no wonder every army and madman is coming here," Gohan thought out loud. "After this, no space faring race with even a little sensor capability won't detect what happened once the signal arrives with them. And none can afford not to at least investigate such power."

Time to do something. He went downward, dove into the ocean and then went into the crust, digging through it, straight to the volcano that had been Mount Fuji. Quickly Gohan made several shafts that lead most of the lava away and safely into the ocean. The shafts would fill up with hardened lava again, only the volcanic shaft would be kept free by gravity, and so eventually a new mountain would grow on top of the volcano. Done with that, Gohan blasted back out of the water, transforming down to the second level as his energy was too depleted to keep the third level going. As the lava hit the water, it boiled and foam and appeared at the surface where this happened. Satisfied that the cities would be safe from the volcano, Gohan dropped the shields, then he proceeded to do the same with the other volcanoes. Once done protecting Japan, he stretched out his senses, and flew off toward the largest concentration of ki signatures that were in danger.

*****

As Gohan put distance between them, Rei's head cleared, most of the pain gone and slowly sat up, looking into the four faces of her friends, and two cats.

"Are you alright?" Minako answered softly. Rei nodded.

*****

Two weeks later Gohan and his newfound friends were standing next to a brand new prototype interdimensional ship that had just arrived. The ship had arrived on the cracked, shattered, but slowly mending plains of Tokyo. The last two weeks Gohan had made extra effort to train the group in front of him - except for Naru - to the fullest of their and his abilities.

One by one, Gohan said his goodbyes to his friends, giving each a few last pieces of advice. Finally Gohan got into the ship, giving them a last greet, "Goodbye guys, you've been awesome!" Once the hatch was closed, Gohan waved goodbye, and the interdimensional engines started up, generating a powerful circling energy field. Then, with a flash, the ship disappeared.

*****

A few moments later the craft reappeared into Bulma's lab back in Gohan's home dimension. The hatch opened, and Gohan came out, looking at the excited Bulma waiting for him. He understood what she was going to ask, and he said, "Not a problem Bulma. No need for any improvements, I barely felt a bump as the ship jumped into hyperspace."

Bulma's eyes lit up with accomplishment. Chi-chi chose that moment to fling herself at Gohan, and hug her son closely. "Hi, mom," Gohan said with a smile, hugging back.

They separated after a few moments, and then Krillin came up to greet him. "Hey, Gohan, great to have you back man, you actually missed a visit from Littica."

"It's good to be back, and what was he here for?" Gohan answered and then asked.

"Ah, let me tell you . . ." Krillin started.

For a moment Gohan looked up, and thought, *Usagi, wherever or whenever you are, I hope you made it into a better world."


	12. Epilogue: What the Future Brings

_Epilogue: What the Future Brings_

With a small burst of energy Chibi Usa shot from the time portal. With some deftly maneuvering she managed to land on her feet. She straightened up, and held her breath. She listened - no explosions, no sounds of thousands of marching troops. Carefully she opened her eyes, and looked around in the alley; which still was an alley, of a city, apparently an intact city - not a wasteland. She let out a breath she hadn't been aware holding, and slowly looked around better to orient herself, wondering if her friends were still alive, wondering if they needed her help.

"Princess!?" a voice asked and she whipped her head around to regard whoever asked her. There was a man at the beginning of they alley - in a uniform. She had never seen the uniform before in her life; but a few of the symbols, and the rank insignia that showed he was a captain were very familiar to her - the symbols and insignia of the Earth Royal Army.

"Uh, hello, you are?" Usagi asked nervously.

The man snapped to attention, his face for a moment filled with self-annoyance: of course the princess didn't know every single soldier by name. "Captain Micheals, ma'am, with the 52nd airborne division."

*52nd airborne!?* Usagi wondered silently. *Shouldn't he be at an airfield then? And since when do we have English - American? Australian? - people who have been part of our army so long they made it to captain? . . . oh, my.*

"Ma'am, I could be presumptuous, but we've been looking for you, feared you were kidnapped, you might be needed in Tokyo, ma'am, you might want to go there," the man quickly said.

Usagi went white, they had gotten here anyway, for a moment she had hoped the army wasn't here. Had her changes been enough? Obviously at the moment Tokyo wasn't leveled with the ground - yet. "Yes, ok, uhm, how do I get there?" she asked, between her across space teleportation, twice, and the exhausting first time sex - might not have been such a good idea after all - she had no energy left for another teleportation, although she was confident she could still fight.

The man seemed confused, and asked, "Flying, ma'am?"

Usagi looked at him for a few moments, confused, and then said, "With what?"

The man's eyes bugged out of his head, looking at Usagi in disbelief and then suddenly with suspicious eyes. Could this be an imposter? He had never been close enough to the princess to be able to know her ki signature.

The pink-haired girl looked at him in shock, and then slowly regained her composure. "Could you bring me?" she asked nervously.

Captain Micheals contemplated, and then decided that the queen would most notably be able to tell if this was the real princess or not. He pulled out a communicator and said into it, "People, I found the princess, I'll be escorting her to the battle field. Watari, you're in charge." A chorus of acknowledgments followed, each having a little sliver of relief in their voices. Micheals decided that if Usagi was an imposter, and she didn't know about flight, it was better to keep her imbalanced. Before she even know what had happened, he had grabbed her tightly by her waist and blasted off with great speed. It had the desired effect, Usagi's eyes widened in shock as the city below her flew by rapidly.

*****

They arrived over Tokyo, and Usagi was still in shock. The army was here alright, but an army of their own was standing against it - or more like flying against it. The battle raged everywhere, but the army of Earth was holding their own even against superior numbers, which with every death of an enemy soldier became less and less superior, of course Earth warriors were dying as well, but they just weren't dying with the same numbers as was the enemy.

Then she saw it: the General of the army. The horrible thing with its tentacles, the one that so easily leveled Tokyo with the ground in her memories. She froze up with dread as Micheals placed her and himself on the roof of a nearby building. She recognized Mars - Rei - except she was not in her Sailor Mars outfit. She was wearing a skin tight outfit purple and black, that blossomed out to broad shoulder pads, and a lovely cleavage covered by a few ropes that was both stylish as well as sexy, and sensible. Next to her King Endymion was fighting. Usagi hadn't recognized her father until now, because he was not in his classical tuxedo uniform, he was wearing an outfit made to move in, with the front only vaguely resembling his erstwhile tuxedo costume.

Suddenly the both of them stretched out their hands and a yellow energy disc formed on each of their hands. "DESTRUCTO DISC!" both yelled and then flung the cutting discs at the main force. It laughed, wanting to say something, an energy shield shimmering around him. He looked mightily surprised when the discs cut through the shield he was generating and sliced off some of its tentacles. Rei and Endymion shot forward like a well-oiled team and smashed both their knees forward into the alien general. His weakened shield shattered under their combined power and they doubled the thing over as they crashed into him. Immediately after, they followed up with uppercuts that sent the thing reeling. They backed up some, and both charged an angry white ball of energy with both their hands pointing at the alien. They let the balls fly and they connected, both exploded mightily, making the alien roar in pain. The explosion was big enough to shatter the glass in the skyscrapers on either side, sending the glass flying everywhere.

"Honey, NOW!" Endymion shouted, as he and Mars back up some. Chibi Usa watched with astounding as her mother arrived from somewhere behind a building with a speed she had never seen her move at. The blonde Super Sailor Moon had her hands stretched out, her scepter floated in front of her chest, energy crackling from it focusing in a focal point right in front of it. There a pink ball of energy slowly formed and grew bigger.

"MEGAMAC!! EAT THIS!!" Super Sailor Moon shouted, as the pink ball of crackling energy formed a blue and black angry core. "DISINTEGRATION BEAM!!" she yelled in anger and the ball stretched out in a powerful beam of energy. The general was still recovering from Rei and Endymion's united attacks and had no defense. He screamed as the energy beam enveloped him, and started cutting him up, seemingly in thousands of tiny cubes. Suddenly the last of the beam crashed into him and with an implosion the cubes were flung away, and then disappeared into nothingness.

"General Z!" someone called, and Chibi Usa looked over. She saw a red and black clad ninja minus face mask in a furious battle with an alien that had to be of the same stature seeing its uniform. This General Z, which she had never hear of, moved with a speed, grace, and agility that had her dumbfounded. Reacting to his summons the general sped up, got in the alien's defenses and suddenly blasted a beam of energy from his hand through the alien's chest. Immediately this General Z looked over to the one calling and saw what the soldier wanted him to know: the alien general was destroyed. In that moment the dumbfounded girl could see the general's face, and recognized him, but couldn't quite place him. She wracked her brain 'mom's childhood friend' clicked somewhere, having seen the man a few times when he came to visit; 'Umino', her mind supplied the name right after.

"Jupiter!" General Z commanded with authority, as he looked down. Chibi Usa followed his gaze, and saw Sailor Jupiter fighting a whole squadron of aliens on the ground . . . except it wasn't Sailor Jupiter, it wasn't Makoto - it was . . . Usagi couldn't remember the name, but it was Umino's wife that much she knew. "The ki shield is down."

Sailor Jupiter nodded once, blasting the attacking aliens who had decided to try and use her distraction off of her. Then she was enveloped in a white flame of energy and burst upward into the air. In the sky her antennae rose out of her tiara and dark thunderclouds gathered around her.

Chibi Usa's attention was taken away from the sight, as Sailor Uranus's familiar voice called out, "Saturn!" She couldn't see Uranus, she was probably somewhere behind a building, but a moment later Sailor Saturn appeared from behind a building, and sliced her glaive clean through a few alien soldiers. To Usagi's surprise she seemed healthy and strong, not the weak, pale girl she remembered. Then Satarn burst into the air, her glaive swiveling around in her right hand. "DEATH BLAST!" Saturn called, and stopped the glaive horizontally in front of her. Immediately arches of black energy lashed out continuously, striking at the alien soldiers.

"Multi Thunder Attack!" Sailor Jupiter called from somewhere, and Chibi Usa looked over. Lightning came flashing down from the dark, dangerous thunderclouds, each one striking at least one alien soldier. Chibi Usa watched in awe as Saturn and Jupiter's attacks moved forward, killing alien soldier after alien soldier. Finally both attacks flashed down upon a shield. Chibi Usa watched as the higher and more powerful alien generating it, groaned with the effort, but he managed to ward off the attacks until they ended.

The new commander, now that the old one died, took one final look at the death dealt to his army, and their leader, and he called out, "RETREAT!!" Then the alien soldiers did just that, fleeing from the battle field in a well-ordered fashion. Chibi Usa watched as an airborne contingent of Earth's forced started pursuing, firing energy blasts from their hands like it was nothing.

"STAND DOWN! LET THEM GO!" Sailor Moon called out with authority, and immediately efforts of pursuit were ceased.

Earth's army stayed vigilant for several more minutes in case it was a faint, and in that time Chibi Usa marveled at what she saw. She couldn't believe it; she had hoped, wished for many things, but nothing like this. An army of super warriors? Tears of joy started to form on her cheeks as she thought it over; it shouldn't be possible. Setsuna and her had gone over so many possibilities of what to do and what could result, but none contained this. She had hoped for just enough power to beat this army, resulting in a half destroyed Earth at the end. But this? "Gohan," she suddenly whispered as her tears of joy and relief started flowing with greater numbers, understanding dawning, "you did this. You trained them." She looked up, as if he would be there, and whispered with deep emotions, "Thank you."

The Sailor Soldiers who were nearby and their friends arrived at the roof, and Sailor Moon scolded, "Small Lady Serenity, what did you think you were doing!? Where were you!? We could have used your help! You can't forsake your duties."

Chibi Usa looked at her very much alive mother for a moment, and then with a cry of joy bound forward and jumped, wrapping herself around her mother's neck, hugging her close. The blond, senior Usagi was surprised and then wrapped her arms around the crying teen. "Hey, what's wrong?" Usagi whispered soothingly, looking at her friends one by one for an explanation, none of them had one to give. Micheals took a few uncomfortable steps back, he felt like a perverted voyeur, watching this.

Chibi Usa moved her head, regarding Rei, and she asked whimpering, "Why aren't you Sailor Mars?"

"Why do you mean?" her mother asked, confused like the others. The pink-haired girl in her arms gave a shrug. "She's been Ninja M for years. Why don't you know this?"

"Humor me," Chibi Usa said softly.

Her friends and family looked at each other for a moment, and then Rei answered, "Mars was destroyed years ago."

Chibi Usa looked confused, and asked, "What do you mean, you're here?"

Everybody frowned, and Rei answered in disbelief, "Not me, not the soldier, the planet - it was destroyed years ago." The pink-haired teen looked shocked for a moment. "Why don't you know . . ." Rei trailed of as Usagi's face lit up in revelation, and then her face did as well.

Usagi prompted her daughter, "You just went to the past to have Gohan destroy the time gates, didn't you?" Chibi Usa looked up in surprise, and then nodded. "You don't know anything of the new time line . . . we're going to have to train you all over again, no wonder you felt so low on ki."

Her daughter looked confused for a moment, and then looked over at the new Sailor Jupiter: Naru. "Makoto?" the teen croaked out. She felt the hug tighten and steeled herself for the answer she dreaded.

"She was killed three years ago, but her transformation pen wasn't destroyed," Sailor Moon answered softly.

Chibi Usa swallowed, and then gave a sob. She had already seen them die, she knew some of them would probably still be dead when she came back, but she had also hoped, it still hurt. "Setsuna?"

"Vaporized over a decade ago," her mother answered and decided to add the rest to it. "Ami and Minako are fine, they're off planet on an official visit to one of our allies. And Michiru is fine too, although she claims otherwise and is mostly yelling at Haruka for 'getting her into this predicament' - she's at home, pregnant."

Chibi Usa looked up, frowning in confusion and looked over at Sailor Uranus. The short-hared blonde folded her hands across her chest, and sternly, but with a smile, she answered, "Artificial insemination, you changing the past didn't change my gender."

"Hon, she's getting heavy," the older Usagi complained somewhat which earned her an annoyed look from the others. When Chbi-Usa was handed over to her father and she buried her face deeply into his chest while he hugged her fiercely, nobody mentioned a thing though.

*****

A week later all was quiet, and Rei soared happily through the air of the Earth. The defeat of General Megamac effectively removed any coherence in the army, and the commander that had decided to retreat, had also decided to sign a peace treaty with Earth. Of course, other movements in the army now left with mostly a power vacuum didn't accept his new position as easily. The new General was forced to leave quickly to fight other newly, self-appointed generals for dominance. The different factions would battle each other till there was hardly anything left of the once great and terrifying army. Thus at least in the short run, Earth was at peace once again.

*Hino Rei,* a disembodied voice suddenly sounded. Rei halted her flight, and looked around, then suddenly understood.

"Kami-sama?" she said out loud and beamed back.

*Yes, please come to the sanctuary,* the ancient god's voice sounded in her mind.

*I'm coming,* she beamed.

*****

An hour later Rei landed on the airborne, ancient building. She walked over to the waiting Sarudahiko, and knelt down, "Sarudahiko-sama," she said with reverence. The god was clean shaven now though, and he didn't seem so old now, perhaps even slightly attractive.

"Oh, get up, child, now!" the old god ordered as the even older caretaker of the place appeared behind the god. Rei quickly obeyed and bowed, not daring to look at the god. "Look at me!" Rei once again obeyed nervously. "Good," the god said, and then started on a different line of thought. "Rei, I've been god of this world for several millennia now. I'm old, ancient, not even the magics in this place can keep me alive for that much longer. I need a replacement."

"I don't understand," Rei answered confused.

"Hino Rei," Sarudahiko continued in an officious voice. "You wanted to be a priestess, going ahead of others to worship gods, but circumstance threw a monkey wrench in that plan. You turned the possibility down based on several moral decisions: your continued protection of this world, and its ruling queen, not to mention the requirement to give up certain things you couldn't give up, because you didn't think anyone should have to give them up. Yet you never stopped criticizing the new royal couple and their decisions; you have no idea how much influence you've had on them and the queen in particular. You've shown compassion, wisdom, and through time a better control of your temper; and yet you are not afraid to let that considerable temper out when it is necessary. In short; you are the best candidate to replace me. There were several others in the running, but you've grown enormously in the past few years. I'm asking you to become god of the Earth, to replace me."

"What!? ME!? God of the Earth!?" Rei exclaimed in other shock. She always worshiped gods, how could _/she/_ of all people become one?

"Indeed, you, what is your answer?" Sarudahiko asked.

"I couldn't possibly, I'm not worthy, I'm just mortal, I . . ." Rei started, too shocked by the whole question.

"Are you denying me?" Sarudahiko demanded suddenly, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"N-no, I wouldn't presume . . ." Rei started, mortified.

Sarudahiko grinned, stuck out his jeweled staff, and said, "Good." It was really manipulative, he knew, getting her like that, but he could see in her heart; he knew, deep down she was build to take on this responsibility. Tentatively the grown woman took the scepter slash staff. "Great!" Sarudahiko said with a bright grin and walked around her toward the edge of the platform. Rei turned around to look at the god in shock. "You'll do fantastic, Rei, trust in yourself. The magics of the place will prolong your life to a few millennia, don't lock yourself up here completely, you _/can/_ go down and interact with everybody, including men. If you really, really, _/really/_ need help or advice you can contact me telepathically, but only_ /really/_." The ex-god looked down, and rubbed his hands in anticipation, "Two thousand years of celibacy, that's going to change - _/finally/_. These last few decades of my life, I will indulge myself. Ooh, what I've heard whispering about today's bikinis. TO THE BEACH!" Then he blasted off with joyful laughter, leaving Rei behind.

"But, but . . ." Rei tried weakly, but the ex-god had already left. She lifted the staff and looked at it dumbfounded.

"Hino Rei Kami-sama," the genie said behind her. When she turned around she saw him bowing respectively. He straightened back up, and suggested to the shocked goddess, "It might be prudent for me to give you the full tour of the place, every last nook and cranny so to speak."

"I guess," Rei said slack jawed and slowly followed the ancient caretaker.

_The End_

Author's notes:

Few, finished! A few notes I think. SM vs DBZ power levels. It's obvious the dragonball characters and especially the Super Saiyans are far beyond anything the Sailor Moon characters can put out. I've read several crossovers where SM characters were written so powerful the DBZ characters didn't stand a chance against them, which was just ridiculous. I've read all the arguments about why SM is supposedly stronger than DBZ and let me tell you, they don't hold a candle to some scrutinizing. There's is only one argument that cannot be shown to be wrong, but that one doesn't show anything, it can just as easily mean that the DBZ characters are even _/more/_ powerful in comparison to the SM crowd. If you want to debate it, I'll answer every argument you can throw at me at my yahoo group: 

I've read crossovers that are the umpteenth 'let's put Vegeta, and Usagi together, and Bulma and Mamoru are really just assholes (exchange names as necessary)' which makes me go; huh?

Finally, nearly every crossover never has an impact on the SM universe when a Super Saiyan arrives through the dimensional barriers, and that never sat right with me. Space and time are torn apart revealing a massively powerful being capable of destroying planets with ease, and everyone in the SM universe just goes 'shrug, so what?' Everyone and their mother would come investigating exactly how, why, that being got there and whether or not he/she is a threat to the rest of them.

Doing that caused me to wonder, can Jupiter foresee anything that lies outside of time and space? And what kind of consequences would that have? This is the result, I hope everyone likes it.


End file.
